Former CIA officer charged with giving ‘classified agency hacking tools to Wikileaks’

A former CIA employee has been charged with allegedly stealing a massive amount of classified information and providing it to an organisation believed to be Wikileaks.

Joshua Adam Schulte, 29, was charged in a 13-count indictment for allegedly leaking US government hacking tools that he allegedly stole while in Virginia and elsewhere in 2016.

Although the organisation in question was not named in the indictment nor the news release by the US Department of Justice, but Wikileaks published the information beginning in March 2017.

Mr Schulte had previously charged with the receipt, possession, and transportation of child pornography, but the indictment broadens the case to accuse him of illegally gathering classified information, damaging CIA computers, lying to investigators and numerous other offences.

In January 2018, lawyers in the child pornography case said Mr Schulte was the subject of an investigation into Wikileaks’ release of a trove of CIA data called “Vault 7”.

It is believed to be one of the largest unauthorised leaks of classified information in history.

"[Mr Schulte] utterly betrayed this nation and downright violated his victims. As an employee of the CIA, Schulte took an oath to protect this country, but he blatantly endangered it by the transmission of classified Information,” FBI official William Sweeney Jr said in the news release about the indictment.

The indictment states Mr Schulte allegedly altered a CIA computer system to grant himself access to delete his activity on the system and lock other users out.

Mr Schulte has also been accused of lying to the FBI about his alleged activities, theft of government property, illegal gathering of national defence information that could put citizens at risk, and transmitting a harmful computer programme.

The indictment calls for the forfeiture of any property Mr Schulte obtained directly or indirectly from any foreign government, party, or military force as a result of the supposed crimes.

"When all the evidence is clear, he's hardly the villain that the government tries to make him out to be,” said Sabrina Shroff, Mr Schulte’s lawyer.

Prosecutors said charges could be brought against Mr Schulte this July. If convicted, he could face decades in federal prison.

The US government has all but acknowledged the leak from the CIA's Center for Cyber Intelligence. President Donald Trump told a television host then: "I just want people to know the CIA was hacked, and a lot of things taken”.

Mr Trump has repeatedly promised to crack down on leaks during his time in office and to wit, Mr Schulte is the fourth person charged with allegedly leaking classified information in the 18 months of the president’s term.

Last June, Reality Winner, a contractor with the National Security Agency, was charged with allegedly leaking a report detailing methods used by Russian government agents to target state election officials. She is set to go to trial in October.

Former FBI agent Terry Albury pleaded guilty in March to leaking a report to The Intercept about how the bureau handles informants.

Last month the former head of security for the Senate Intelligence Committee James Wolfe, which is investigating along with the FBI alleged collusion between Mr Trump’s 2016 campaign staff and Russian officials, was charged with three counts of lying to the FBI about allegedly passing classified information on to at least one member of the media.