Joshua Schulte was indicted on 13 charges in June of 2018 and charged with stealing and disclosing a cache of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) cyberespionage tools, which were released in March of 2017. Despite the hung jury on eight treason charges, Schulte was found guilty of contempt of court and providing misrepresentations to the Federal Bureau Investigation in his second trial in 2020.
Schulte is charged with illegally obtaining sensitive data from the United States government and providing it to WikiLeaks. The prosecution of Schulte commenced in Manhattan federal courtroom on Tuesday(6/14/22). Jurors could not agree on the major allegations in his first trial, which ended in 2020.
Schulte has stated in his defense that the CIA and FBI exploited him as a scapegoat for a scandalous leak because of his previous disagreements with the organization’s hierarchy. Schulte, who left the CIA in 2016, while defending himself, stated that the jurors would indeed prove his innocence in the Federal court in New York. It’s expected to span five weeks and feature evidence from former CIA agents.
