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Court drawing: Joshua Schulte (center) worked at the CIA on developing espionage programs

Photo: Elizabeth Williams / AP

Initially there was even 80 years in prison. It didn't turn out to be quite that much. Nevertheless, the transfer of secret CIA hacking programs to the WikiLeaks disclosure platform has significant legal consequences for a former employee of the US foreign intelligence service. He has now been sentenced to 40 years in prison.

A federal judge in New York sentenced 35-year-old Joshua Schulte on Thursday for espionage, hacking, contempt of court, making false statements to the FBI and possession of child pornography.

According to US authorities, Schulte is responsible for the largest theft of secret data in the history of the CIA. The CIA even spoke of a “digital Pearl Harbor” in reference to the major Japanese attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor in World War II.

Schulte worked for a CIA hacker team between 2012 and 2016. He collected malware used by the US foreign secret service for cyber espionage and later passed it on to WikiLeaks. The disclosure platform published the relevant documents in March 2017 under the name “Vault 7”. This gave hackers worldwide access to these tools. Schulte is said to have acted out of anger at former colleagues.

Prosecutor: Acts cost “hundreds of millions of dollars”

"Schulte betrayed his country by committing some of the most brazen and heinous espionage crimes in U.S. history," prosecutors said. The theft and publication of the programs "immediately and severely damaged" the CIA's ability to collect intelligence on US adversaries. CIA employees and programs were at risk and the data leak cost the secret service "hundreds of millions of dollars."

Schulte was initially only charged with possession of child pornography in 2017. The allegations of theft and leaking of U.S. national security information were added later. He was convicted of making false statements and contempt of court in 2020 and found guilty on espionage and hacking charges in 2022. In 2023, he was convicted of possession of child pornography. Now the sentence has been announced.

jok/AFP