Washington: A former CIA employee has been charged with stealing classified national defence information from the US intelligence agency and passing it to the Wikileaks.
Joshua Adam Schulte, 29, was hit with a 13-count superseding indictment Monday that accuses him with everything from the theft of government property to copyright infringement to obstruction of justice.
The feds say Schulte illegally leaked classified information, including national defense information that he believed could be used to the injury of the United States and the advantage of a foreign nation.
Schulte, of Manhattan, is currently detained on the child pornography charges.
In January, attorneys involved in the child porn case revealed in court that Schulte was the target of a major investigation into WikiLeaks’ release of a CIA collection known as ‘Vault 7.’
‘Vault 7’ was the largest loss of classified documents in the agency’s history, according to The New York Times.
The Justice Department’s news release announcing Schulte’s indictment does not mention WikiLeaks by name, signaling that it has not been charged in the case. There was no mention of any other individuals being charged.
WikiLeaks, founded was Julian Assange is an international non-profit organisation that publishes secret information, news leaks and classified reports provided by anonymous sources.
“Leaks of classified information pose a danger to the security of all Americans,” said Assistant Attorney General John Demers.
In 2016, Schulte allegedly stole the Classified Information from a computer network at the CIA and later transmitted it to Organization-1. Schulte also intentionally caused damage without authorisation to a CIA computer system by granting himself unauthorized access to the system, deleting records of his activities, and denying others access to the system.
Schulte subsequently made material false statements to FBI agents concerning his conduct at the CIA, federal prosecutors alleged.
