The Justice Department released the below information:
Joshua
Adam Schulte, 35, of New York, New York, was sentenced today to 480 months in
prison for crimes of espionage, computer hacking, contempt of court, making
false statements to the FBI, and child pornography. Schulte’s theft is the
largest data breach in the history of the CIA, and his transmission of that
stolen information to WikiLeaks is one of the largest unauthorized disclosures
of classified information in the history of the United States.
Today’s sentencing followed Schulte’s convictions at trials that
concluded on March 9, 2020, July 13, 2022, and Sept. 13, 2023.
“Mr. Schulte severely harmed U.S. national security and directly
risked the lives of CIA personnel, persisting in his efforts even after his
arrest,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice
Department’s National Security Division. “As today’s sentence reaffirms, the
Department of Justice is committed to investigating, prosecuting, and holding
accountable those who would violate their constitutional oath and betray the
trust of the American people they pledged to protect.”
“Joshua Schulte betrayed his country by committing some of the
most brazen, heinous crimes of espionage in American history,” said U.S.
Attorney Damian Williams for the Southern District of New York. “He caused
untold damage to our national security in his quest for revenge against the CIA
for its response to Schulte’s security breaches while employed there. When the
FBI caught him, Schulte doubled down and tried to cause even more harm to this
nation by waging what he described as an ‘information war’ of publishing top
secret information from behind bars. And all the while, Schulte collected
thousands upon thousands of videos and images of children being subjected to
sickening abuse for his own personal gratification. Joshua Schulte is a
monster, and the sentence imposed today reflects the enormity of his crimes.
The outstanding investigative work of the FBI and the career prosecutors in
this office unmasked Schulte for the traitor and predator that he is and made
sure that he will spend 40 years behind bars where he belongs.”
“Joshua Schulte caused grave harm to U.S. national security and
contributed to the abuse of scores of innocent children,” said Executive
Assistant Director Larissa L. Knapp of the FBI’s National Security Branch.
“Using his expertise, Schulte stole and exposed classified national
security information including some of the U.S. government’s most sensitive
techniques and personnel, but he didn’t only exploit the U.S. government – he
also exploited vulnerable children by collecting images and videos capturing their
horrific abuse for his own pleasure. Together with our partners, the FBI will
remain steadfast in our pursuit of those who put the security of the American
people and its most vulnerable citizens at risk.”
According to court documents, from 2012 to 2016, Schulte was
employed as a software developer in the Center for Cyber Intelligence (CCI),
which conducts offensive cyber operations: cyber espionage relating to
terrorist organizations and foreign governments. Schulte and other CCI
developers worked on tools that were used in, among other things, human-enabled
operations: cyber operations that involved a person with access to the computer
network being targeted by the cyber tool. In addition to being a developer,
Schulte was also temporarily one of the administrators of one of the servers
and suite of development programs used to build cyber tools.
In March 2016, Schulte was moved within branches of CCI as a
result of personnel disputes between Schulte and another developer. Following
that transfer, in April 2016, Schulte abused his administrator powers to grant
himself administrator privileges over a development project from which he had
been removed as a result of the branch change. Schulte’s abuse of administrator
privileges was detected, and CCI leadership directed that administrator
privileges would immediately be transferred from developers, including Schulte,
to another division. Schulte was also given a warning about self-granting
administrator privileges that had previously been revoked.
Schulte had, however, secretly opened an administrator session
on one of the servers before his privileges were removed. On April 20, 2016,
after other developers had left the CCI office, Schulte used his secret server
administrator session to execute a series of cyber-maneuvers on the CIA network
to restore his revoked privileges, break in to the backups, steal copies of the
entire CCI tool development archives (the Stolen CIA Files), revert the network
back to its prior state, and delete hundreds of log files in an attempt to
cover his tracks. Schulte’s theft of the Stolen CIA Files is the largest data
breach in CIA history.
From his home computer, Schulte then transmitted the Stolen CIA
Files to WikiLeaks, using anonymizing tools recommended by WikiLeaks to
potential leakers, such as the Tails operating system and the Tor browser. On
May 5, 2016, having transmitted the Stolen CIA Files to WikiLeaks, Schulte
wiped and reformatted his home computer’s internal hard drives.
On March 7, 2017, WikiLeaks began publishing classified data
from the Stolen CIA Files. Between March and November 2017, there were a total
of 26 disclosures of classified data from the Stolen CIA Files that WikiLeaks
denominated as Vault 7 and Vault 8 (the WikiLeaks Disclosures). The WikiLeaks
Disclosures were one of the largest unauthorized disclosures of classified
information in the history of the United States, and Schulte’s theft and
disclosure immediately and profoundly damaged the CIA’s ability to collect
foreign intelligence against America’s adversaries; placed CIA personnel,
programs, and assets directly at risk; and cost the CIA hundreds of millions of
dollars. The effect was described at trial by the former CIA Deputy Director of
Digital Innovation as a “digital Pearl Harbor,” and the disclosure caused
exceptionally grave harm to the national security of the United States.
Following the WikiLeaks Disclosures, Schulte was voluntarily
interviewed on multiple occasions by the FBI in March 2017. During those
interviews, Schulte repeatedly lied, including denying being responsible for
the theft of the Stolen CIA Files or for the WikiLeaks Disclosures, and
spinning fake narratives about ways the Stolen CIA Files could have been
obtained from CIA computers, in the hope of deflecting suspicion away from
Schulte and diverting law enforcement resources to false leads.
In March 2017, the FBI searched Schulte’s apartment in New York
pursuant to a search warrant and recovered, among other things, multiple
computers, servers, and other electronic storage devices, including Schulte’s
personal desktop computer (the Desktop Computer), which Schulte built while
living in Virginia and then transported to New York in November 2016. On the
Desktop Computer, FBI agents found layers of encryption hiding tens of
thousands of videos and images of child sexual abuse materials, including
approximately 3,400 images and videos of disturbing and horrific child
pornography and the rape and sexual abuse of children as young as two years
old, as well as images of bestiality and sadomasochism. Schulte collected some
of these files during his employment with the CIA and continued to stockpile
child pornography from the dark web and Russian websites after moving to New
York.
While detained pending trial, in approximately April 2018,
Schulte sent a copy of the affidavit in support of the warrant to search his
apartment, which a protective order entered by the court prohibiting Schulte from
disseminating, to reporters from two different newspapers, and Schulte
acknowledged in recorded phone calls that he knew he was prohibited from
sharing protected material like the affidavit.
Despite being warned by the court not to violate the protective
order further, in the summer and fall of 2018, Schulte made plans to wage what
he proclaimed to be an “information war” against the U.S. government. To pursue
these ends, Schulte obtained access to contraband cellphones while in jail that
he used to create anonymous, encrypted email and social media accounts. Schulte
also attempted to use the contraband cellphones to transmit protected discovery
materials to WikiLeaks and planned to use the anonymous email and social media
accounts to publish a manifesto and various other postings containing
classified information about CIA cyber techniques and cyber tools. In a
journal, Schulte wrote that he planned to “breakup diplomatic relationships,
close embassies, [and] end U.S. occupation across the world[.]” Schulte
successfully sent emails containing classified information about the CCI
development network and the number of employees in particular CIA cyber
intelligence groups to a reporter.
As a result of this conduct, on March 9, 2020, Schulte was found
guilty at trial of contempt of court and making material false statements. On
July 13, 2022, Schulte was found guilty at trial of eight counts: illegal
gathering and transmission of national defense information in connection with
his theft and dissemination of the Stolen CIA Files, illegal transmission and
attempted transmission of national defense information, unauthorized access to
a computer to obtain classified information and information from a department
or agency of the U.S. in connection with his theft of the Stolen CIA Files, and
two counts of causing transmission of harmful computer commands in connection
with his theft of the Stolen CIA Files. Finally, on Sept. 13, 2023, Schulte was
found guilty at trial on charges of receiving, possessing, and transporting
child pornography.
The FBI Counterintelligence Division and Child Exploitation and
Human Trafficking Task Force of the FBI New York Field Office investigated the
case, with the extraordinary assistance of FBI computer scientists from the
Cyber Action Team. The FBI Washington Field Office, CIA Office of General
Counsel, and National Security Division’s Counterintelligence and Export
Control Section provided significant assistance.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys David W. Denton Jr., Michael D. Lockard, and Nicholas S. Bradley for the Southern District of New York prosecuted the case.
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