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	"created_at": "2026-04-06T01:32:17.897301Z",
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	"title": "Former CIA Officer Joshua Adam Schulte Sentenced To 40 Years In Prison For Espionage And Child Pornography Crimes",
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	"plain_text": "Former CIA Officer Joshua Adam Schulte Sentenced To 40 Years\r\nIn Prison For Espionage And Child Pornography Crimes\r\nPublished: 2024-02-01 · Archived: 2026-04-06 00:24:27 UTC\r\nDamian Williams, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York; Matthew G. Olsen, the\r\nAssistant Attorney General for National Security; and James Smith, the Assistant Director in Charge of the New\r\nYork Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), announced today that JOSHUA ADAM\r\nSCHULTE was sentenced to 40 years in prison by U.S. District Judge Jesse M. Furman for crimes of espionage,\r\ncomputer hacking, contempt of Court, making false statements to the FBI, and child pornography.  SCHULTE’s\r\ntheft is the largest data breach in the history of the CIA, and his transmission of that stolen information to\r\nWikiLeaks is one of the largest unauthorized disclosures of classified information in the history of the U.S. \r\nToday’s sentencing followed SCHULTE’s convictions at trials that concluded on March 9, 2020, July 13, 2022,\r\nand September 13, 2023.\r\nU.S. Attorney Damian Williams said: “Joshua Schulte betrayed his country by committing some of the\r\nmost brazen, heinous crimes of espionage in American history.  He caused untold damage to our\r\nnational security in his quest for revenge against the CIA for its response to Schulte’s security breaches\r\nwhile employed there.  When the FBI caught him, Schulte doubled down and tried to cause even more\r\nharm to this nation by waging what he described as an ‘information war’ of publishing top secret\r\ninformation from behind bars.  And all the while, Schulte collected thousands upon thousands of videos\r\nand images of children being subjected to sickening abuse for his own personal gratification.  The\r\noutstanding investigative work of the FBI and the career prosecutors in this Office unmasked Schulte\r\nfor the traitor and predator that he is and made sure that he will spend 40 years behind bars – right\r\nwhere he belongs.”\r\nAssistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen said: “Mr. Schulte severely harmed U.S. national security and\r\ndirectly risked the lives of CIA personnel, persisting in his efforts even after his arrest.  As today’s sentence\r\nreaffirms, the Department of Justice is committed to investigating, prosecuting, and holding accountable those\r\nwho would violate their constitutional oath and betray the trust of the American people they pledged to protect.”\r\nFBI Assistant Director in Charge James Smith said: “Today, Joshua Schulte was rightly punished not only for his\r\nbetrayal of our country, but for his substantial possession of horrific child pornographic material.  The severity of\r\nhis actions is evident, and the sentence imposed reflects the magnitude of the disturbing and harmful threat posed\r\nby his criminal conduct.  The FBI will not yield in our efforts to bring to justice anyone who endangers innocent\r\nchildren or threatens our national security.”\r\nAccording to court documents and evidence at trial:\r\nFrom 2012 to 2016, SCHULTE was employed as a software developer in the Center for Cyber Intelligence\r\n(“CCI”), which conducts offensive cyber operations: cyber espionage relating to terrorist organizations and\r\nforeign governments.  SCHULTE and other CCI developers worked on tools that were used in, among other\r\nhttps://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/former-cia-officer-joshua-adam-schulte-sentenced-40-years-prison-espionage-and-child\r\nPage 1 of 4\n\nthings, human-enabled operations: cyber operations that involved a person with access to the computer network\r\nbeing targeted by the cyber tool.  In addition to being a developer, SCHULTE was also temporarily one of the\r\nadministrators of one of the servers and suite of development programs used to build cyber tools.\r\nIn March 2016, SCHULTE was moved within branches of CCI as a result of personnel disputes between\r\nSCHULTE and another developer.  Following that transfer, in April 2016, SCHULTE abused his administrator\r\npowers to grant himself administrator privileges over a development project from which he had been removed as a\r\nresult of the branch change.  SCHULTE’s abuse of administrator privileges was detected, and CCI leadership\r\ndirected that administrator privileges would immediately be transferred from developers, including SCHULTE, to\r\nanother division.  SCHULTE was also given a warning about self-granting administrator privileges that had\r\npreviously been revoked. \r\nSCHULTE had, however, secretly opened an administrator session on one of the servers before his privileges were\r\nremoved.  On April 20, 2016, after other developers had left the CCI office, SCHULTE used his secret server\r\nadministrator session to execute a series of cyber-maneuvers on the CIA network to restore his revoked privileges,\r\nbreak in to the backups, steal copies of the entire CCI tool development archives (the “Stolen CIA Files”), revert\r\nthe network back to its prior state, and delete hundreds of log files in an attempt to cover his tracks.  SCHULTE’s\r\ntheft of the Stolen CIA Files is the largest data breach in CIA history.\r\nFrom his home computer, SCHULTE then transmitted the Stolen CIA Files to WikiLeaks, using anonymizing\r\ntools recommended by WikiLeaks to potential leakers, such as the Tails operating system and the Tor browser.  On\r\nMay 5, 2016, having transmitted the Stolen CIA Files to WikiLeaks, SCHULTE wiped and reformatted his home\r\ncomputer’s internal hard drives.\r\nOn March 7, 2017, WikiLeaks began publishing classified data from the Stolen CIA Files.  Between March and\r\nNovember 2017, there were a total of 26 disclosures of classified data from the Stolen CIA Files that WikiLeaks\r\ndenominated as Vault 7 and Vault 8 (the “WikiLeaks Disclosures”).  The WikiLeaks Disclosures were one of the\r\nlargest unauthorized disclosures of classified information in the history of the U.S., and SCHULTE’s theft and\r\ndisclosure immediately and profoundly damaged the CIA’s ability to collect foreign intelligence against America’s\r\nadversaries; placed CIA personnel, programs, and assets directly at risk; and cost the CIA hundreds of millions of\r\ndollars.  The effect was described at trial by the former CIA Deputy Director of Digital Innovation as a “digital\r\nPearl Harbor,” and the disclosure caused exceptionally grave harm to the national security of the U.S.   \r\nFollowing the WikiLeaks Disclosures, SCHULTE was voluntarily interviewed on multiple occasions by the FBI in\r\nMarch 2017.  During those interviews, SCHULTE repeatedly lied, including denying being responsible for the\r\ntheft of the Stolen CIA Files or for the WikiLeaks Disclosures and spinning fake narratives about ways the Stolen\r\nCIA Files could have been obtained from CIA computers, in the hope of deflecting suspicion away from\r\nSCHULTE and diverting law enforcement resources to false leads. \r\nIn March 2017, the FBI searched SCHULTE’s apartment in New York pursuant to a search warrant and recovered,\r\namong other things, multiple computers, servers, and other electronic storage devices, including SCHULTE’s\r\npersonal desktop computer (the “Desktop Computer”), which SCHULTE built while living in Virginia and then\r\ntransported to New York in November 2016.  On the Desktop Computer, FBI agents found layers of encryption\r\nhiding tens of thousands of videos and images of child sexual abuse materials, including approximately 3,400\r\nhttps://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/former-cia-officer-joshua-adam-schulte-sentenced-40-years-prison-espionage-and-child\r\nPage 2 of 4\n\nimages and videos of disturbing and horrific child pornography and the rape and sexual abuse of children as\r\nyoung as two years old, as well as images of bestiality and sadomasochism.  SCHULTE collected some of these\r\nfiles during his employment with the CIA and continued to stockpile child pornography from the dark web and\r\nRussian websites after moving to New York.\r\nWhile detained pending trial, in approximately April 2018, SCHULTE sent a copy of the affidavit in support of\r\nthe warrant to search his apartment, which a protective order entered by the Court prohibiting SCHULTE from\r\ndisseminating, to reporters from two different newspapers, and SCHULTE acknowledged in recorded phone calls\r\nthat he knew he was prohibited from sharing protected material like the affidavit.\r\nDespite being warned by the Court not to violate the protective order further, in the summer and fall of 2018,\r\nSCHULTE made plans to wage what he proclaimed to be an “information war” against the U.S. government.  To\r\npursue these ends, SCHULTE obtained access to contraband cellphones while in jail that he used to create\r\nanonymous, encrypted email and social media accounts.  SCHULTE also attempted to use the contraband\r\ncellphones to transmit protected discovery materials to WikiLeaks and planned to use the anonymous email and\r\nsocial media accounts to publish a manifesto and various other postings containing classified information about\r\nCIA cyber techniques and cyber tools.  In a journal, SCHULTE wrote that he planned to “breakup diplomatic\r\nrelationships, close embassies, [and] end U.S. occupation across the world[.]”  SCHULTE successfully sent emails\r\ncontaining classified information about the CCI development network and the number of employees in particular\r\nCIA cyber intelligence groups to a reporter. \r\nAs a result of this conduct, on March 9, 2020, SCHULTE was found guilty at trial of contempt of court and\r\nmaking material false statements.  On July 13, 2022, SCHULTE was found guilty at trial of eight counts: illegal\r\ngathering and transmission of national defense information in connection with his theft and dissemination of the\r\nStolen CIA Files, illegal transmission and attempted transmission of national defense information, unauthorized\r\naccess to a computer to obtain classified information and information from a department or agency of the U.S. in\r\nconnection with his theft of the Stolen CIA Files, and two counts of causing transmission of harmful computer\r\ncommands in connection with his theft of the Stolen CIA Files.  Finally, on September 13, 2023, SCHULTE was\r\nfound guilty at trial on charges of receiving, possessing, and transporting child pornography.\r\n*                *                *\r\nIn addition to the prison term, SCHULTE, 35, of New York, New York, was sentenced to a lifetime of supervised\r\nrelease.\r\nMr. Williams praised the outstanding efforts of the Counterintelligence Division and the Child Exploitation and\r\nHuman Trafficking Task Force of the FBI’s New York Field Office, as well as the extraordinary work of FBI\r\ncomputer scientists from the Cyber Action Team.  Mr. Williams also thanked the FBI Washington Field Office, the\r\nCIA Office of General Counsel, and the National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export Control\r\nSection for their assistance.\r\nThis case is being handled by the Office’s National Security and International Narcotics Unit.  Assistant U.S.\r\nAttorneys David W. Denton Jr., Michael D. Lockard, and Nicholas S. Bradley are in charge of the prosecution.\r\nhttps://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/former-cia-officer-joshua-adam-schulte-sentenced-40-years-prison-espionage-and-child\r\nPage 3 of 4\n\nSource: https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/former-cia-officer-joshua-adam-schulte-sentenced-40-years-prison-espionage-and-child\r\nhttps://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/former-cia-officer-joshua-adam-schulte-sentenced-40-years-prison-espionage-and-child\r\nPage 4 of 4",
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