Ex-CIA Employee Sentenced to 40 Years for Espionage and Child Pornography, Reports Reuters

By Kanishka Singh

WASHINGTON – A former CIA software engineer has been sentenced to 40 years in prison after being convicted of the largest theft of classified information in the agency’s history and facing charges related to child pornography.

U.S. District Judge Jesse Furman issued the 40-year sentence for a range of offenses, including espionage, computer hacking, contempt of court, providing false statements to the FBI, and possession of child pornography. The judge did not grant the life sentence that prosecutors had requested.

Joshua Schulte, who was convicted in July 2022, faced four counts each of espionage and computer hacking, along with one count of lying to federal agents. He was found guilty after transferring classified materials to WikiLeaks, which led to the significant Vault 7 leak. A federal judge upheld the majority of this conviction in August.

The leak, which WikiLeaks began publishing in March 2017, disclosed details about the CIA’s surveillance methods targeting foreign governments, alleged extremists, and others through the exploitation of electronic devices and computer networks.

Prosecutors described Schulte’s acts as "the largest data breach in the history of the CIA," with his delivery of that stolen information to WikiLeaks representing one of the most extensive unauthorized disclosures of classified data in U.S. history. A representative for Schulte was not available for immediate comment.

According to prosecutors, thousands of images and videos depicting child pornography were recovered from Schulte’s apartment in Manhattan. This material was stored in an encrypted container secured by three layers of password protection, discovered during the investigation into the CIA leaks.