Ex-CIA Engineer Set To Go On Trial For Vault 7 Leak
An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: Manhattan federal prosecutors are poised to open their case Tuesday in the trial of a former software engineer for the Central Intelligence Agency who is charged with handing over a trove of classified information on the spy agency's hacking operations to WikiLeaks (Warning: source paywalled; alternative source). In 2017, WikiLeaks released more than 8,000 pages of secret materials -- which the antisecrecy organization called "Vault 7" -- detailing the CIA's cyberespionage arsenal, including the agency's playbook for hacking smartphones, computer operating systems, messaging applications and internet-connected televisions. It was one of the largest breaches in the agency's history. Federal prosecutors say the defendant, Joshua Schulte, stole the documents when he worked in a CIA unit that designed the hacking tools. Mr. Schulte, 31 years old, faces 11 criminal counts, including illegal gathering and transmission of national defense information -- charges that derive from the Espionage Act, a statute that has been applied in other WikiLeaks cases. Some of the charges relate to Mr. Schulte's alleged misconduct and obstruction following his 2017 arrest -- prosecutors say he lied to law enforcement and disobeyed court orders. Mr. Schulte and his lawyers have called the espionage charges vague and overreaching, saying they infringed on constitutional free-speech rights. They have alleged fatal errors in the government's case, objected to the secrecy shrouding the investigation and protested Mr. Schulte's isolated confinement in a Manhattan jail. Opening arguments in the trial are expected as soon as Tuesday, once jury selection is completed.
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