Category Archives: Joshua Schulte

Accused CIA leaker Joshua Schulte allowed to represent himself at next Vault 7 trial

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A U.S. judge ruled Monday that a former CIA software engineer accused of providing classified information to WikiLeaks will be allowed to represent himself at his next trial. Judge Paul Crotty, of the Southern District of New York, said in a July 26 decision that Joshua Schulte, a former employee at the Central Intelligence Agency, would be allowed to discharge his current legal representation, and waive his right to counsel.  Schulte is scheduled to stand trial again in October 2021, marking the second time he will face espionage-related charges for allegedly stealing details about U.S. hacking tools from the CIA, then transmitting that data to WikiLeaks. The result, prosecutors say, was the 2017 publication of the so-called Vault 7 files, a cache of data revealing the agency’s ability to compromise consumer technology like smart TVs and web browsers for espionage purposes.  The incident represented the largest leak in CIA history.  […]

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Vault 7 suspect Joshua Schulte says pretrial conditions are ‘worse than death’

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The former CIA employee charged with leaking details about agency hacking tools says he is being held under “barbaric and inhumane” conditions in a Manhattan federal facility as he awaits a second trial in the case. Lawyers for Joshua Schulte filed a petition last week on his behalf asking a New York federal judge to force the Bureau of Prisons to improve conditions at the Metropolitan Correction Center (MCC). The 32-year-old software engineer has been in solitary confinement for more than two years, according to the documents. He is accused of providing the so-called Vault 7 files, which detailed the U.S. government’s offensivie hacking capabilities, to WikiLeaks, which published the documents in 2017. “It is barbaric and inhumane to lock human beings into boxes for years and years — it is a punishment worse than death and there is no wonder that MCC inmates would rather kill themselves than continue […]

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Wyden seeks details on spies’ data protection after scathing CIA audit on Vault 7 leaks

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A senator with insight into the way U.S. intelligence agencies conduct espionage wants to know if American spies are protecting their secrets in a way that prevents intruders from stealing information that’s crucial to national security. In a letter sent Tuesday to the director of national intelligence, Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., asked for more information about what he described as “widespread security problems across the intelligence community.”  Wyden was referencing, in part, an internal Central Intelligence Agency audit that described “longstanding imbalances and lapses” in data protection before WikiLeaks published secret U.S. hacking tools, known as the Vault 7 files, starting in 2017. The October 2017 audit encouraged the CIA to view the audit’s findings as “a wake-up call” and “an opportunity” to “reorient how we view risk.” Now, Wyden is asking Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe about whether known vulnerabilities still exist. The intelligence community “is still lagging […]

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US will try Joshua Schulte again for allegedly leaking CIA hacking tools

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U.S. prosecutors will retry ex-CIA employee Joshua Schulte on espionage-related charges after a jury couldn’t come to a decision in his first trial. Assistant U.S. Attorney David Denton on Monday told a judge in the Southern District of New York that the Department of Justice “does intend to retry Mr. Schulte on the espionage charges.” The update comes more than two months after a jury found Schulte, 31, guilty of lying to the FBI and contempt of court, though they remained deadlocked on eight counts, including the illegal transmission of national defense information. Prosecutors will “clarify” the charges, Denton said, but not add any new criminal counts. While a trial date remains unclear, Judge Paul Crotty said jury selection would not begin before September, amid ongoing concerns connected to the coronavirus pandemic. “It’s difficult to predict when things are going to approach normal again,” he said. The teleconference came after […]

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Ex-CIA Accused of Leaking Secret Hacking Tools to WikiLeaks Gets Mistrial

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A federal judge in New York on Monday declared a mistrial in the case of a former CIA software engineer who was accused of stealing a massive trove of the agency’s classified hacking and tools and leaking it to WikiLeaks whistleblower website.

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Vault 7 court case ends in mistrial on most serious charges

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A New York City jury was unable to reach a verdict Monday on a number of charges against a former CIA engineer accused of orchestrating the largest leak in agency history. A federal jury in New York found Joshua Schulte guilty on charges of contempt of court and lying to the FBI after a monthlong trial and four days of deliberation. Jurors could not reach a decision on more serious charges of illegally transferring national defense information; unauthorized access to classified information; and theft of government property. A hearing will be held on March 26 to determine the next steps in the case. U.S. prosecutors argued that Schulte leaked a trove CIA hacking tools to WikiLeaks in 2016 to retaliate against co-workers and agency management for what he perceived as unfair treatment during his employment. Defense attorneys worked to convince jurors that the CIA had failed to secure its most sensitive […]

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Joshua Schulte’s attorney suggests Vault 7 leaks were due to the CIA’s poor cybersecurity

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So many people had access to the computer network used by CIA software engineers that U.S. officials still don’t know who is actually behind the leak of the agency’s hacking tools, according to the defense attorney for an accused leaker. The lawyer for Joshua Schulte, a former CIA employee on trial for allegedly providing the tools to WikiLeaks, told the jury Tuesday that the government networks their client worked on were so insecure that investigators will never know if Schulte, or some other intruder, carried out the theft. Schulte, 31, faces 11 criminal counts in connection with leaking the so-called Vault 7 files to WikiLeaks. In 2017, the controversial organization spent six months publishing documents detailing the CIA’s ability to hack into mobile operating systems, messaging apps, smart TVs and other consumer technology. Prosecutors have alleged Schulte stole the files in order to cause as much harm as possible to […]

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As Vault 7 trial begins, Joshua Schulte’s attorneys will argue he’s a whistleblower

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Nearly three years after WikiLeaks began publishing secret CIA hacking tools, the legal team for the former agency employee who allegedly stole those files will try to convince a jury he did so in order to reveal the secrets behind the tools uses by the government to break into widely used consumer technology. Based on the evidence, it’s shaping up to be a difficult argument. That’s before you consider the current environment: where the U.S. justice system has taken a hard-line approach to those who go public with classified information. While the U.S. has charged former CIA software engineer Joshua Schulte with transmitting files detailing the agency’s arsenal of hacking tools, his lawyers have given no indication that he acted out of conscience. Government prosecutors, meanwhile, will introduce evidence starting Monday that Schulte, now 31, was motivated by nothing more than revenge for what he perceived to be mistreatment by […]

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U.S. says accused Vault 7 leaker tried orchestrating PR campaign from jail cell

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With less than two weeks before a former Central Intelligence Agency contractor is scheduled to strand trial for allegedly leaking classified information to WikiLeaks, U.S. prosecutors on Tuesday asked a judge to admit evidence detailing the defendant’s behavior behind bars, including alleged communications with reporters. The defendant, Joshua Schulte, has been charged with stealing national defense information, then providing it to WikiLeaks, which then published a trove of CIA hacking tools known as the Vault7 files. Schulte was arrested in August 2017 and has been awaiting his trial in Manhattan’s Metropolitan Correctional Center. While detained, Schulte sought to “drum up media attention for his case and to paint himself as an innocent man,” prosecutors wrote in a Jan. 21 court filing. This public relations campaign involved writing a series of articles that he sought to distribute to the media, urging family members to post his missives on a public Facebook […]

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No more delays: Judge in Vault 7 case sets trial date

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It looks like the judge presiding over the case of a former Central Intelligence Agency employee accused of providing U.S. secrets to WikiLeaks is out of patience. Judge Paul Crotty of the U.S. Southern District of New York declared in a court filing Monday that the trial of Joshua Schulte will begin on Feb. 3, 2020, nearly a month after the anticipated Jan. 12 trial start and three months after the previously scheduled date of Nov. 4, 2019. The decision comes after a long series of delays from Schulte’s defense attorneys, who have argued they needed the court to add another lawyer to the defense, and that they failed to understand some of the government’s allegations against Schulte despite repeated explanations from prosecutors. Schulte’s team also requested on Dec. 5 the court grant an extension to file a response to a motion related to the handling of classified material in the […]

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