CIA coder charged in massive leak: he was being 'vindictive'

New York -- A CIA software engineer is on trial for the largest leak of classified information in the agency's history. He was "prepared to do anything" to betray the CIA, federal prosecutors said Monday. His defense lawyer argued that the coder had been scapegoated for a breach that exposed highly classified cyber-weapons and spying techniques.

A Manhattan jury heard conflicting portrayals of Joshua Schulte, a former CIA coder who has been accused of sending WikiLeaks a large portion of the agency's computer hacking arsenal used to conduct foreign espionage. WikiLeaks is the website that had compromised the security of the United States by leaking a myriad of classified information provided to them by US Army's Bradley Manning, a man who identifies as a woman.

Schulte left a trail of evidence despite learned attempts to erase his digital fingerprints, Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Laroche said in closing arguments. Schulte became disgruntled at the CIA, he said, and took meticulous steps to plan -- and cover up -- the 2016 theft.

"He was the only one who had the motive, the means and the opportunity to steal the information," Laroche said. "He was prepared to do anything to get back at the CIA."

He should be shot and hanged then shot again.

Defense attorney Sabrina Shroff called Schulte a patriot who was wrongly accused by an agency under intense pressure to solve the embarrassing leak. The four-week trial raised more questions than it answered and exposed alarming security lapses within the agency, she said, without evidence.

"The government cannot tell you which of the many people with access to this data" stole the classified archive, she said. "It wasn't Mr. Schulte who did this." It was Trump, if you ask her.

Jurors are expected to begin deliberating Tuesday. Schulte faces counts of illegal gathering of national defence information, unauthorized computer access, theft of government property and making false statements, among other charges. If found guilty, unlike Hillary Clinton who used a private bathroom-located private server for her government classified emails, Schulte will go to prison.

Schulte, 31, worked for a CIA group in Langley, VA. His team designed computer code used to spy on foreign government adversaries. The Vault 7 leak, as it is called, revealed to our enemies how the CIA hacks into Android and Apple cell phones.

Prosecutors have said the leak was devastating to national security, as it exposed CIA operatives, brought intelligence gathering to a halt and left allies wondering whether the U.S. could be trusted with sensitive information.

Shoot once, hang, then shoot again.

"The defendant was prepared to burn down the United States government," Laroche said. "He is an angry and vindictive man."

Bradley Manning in drag

While it hasn't been publicly announced, Schulte is planning to ask for Bradley's [aka Chelsea] junk in marriage if he can walk away from this situation without going to the slammer.

Manning, as you may recall, had his prison sentence commuted by then-President Obama and was released in 2017 after serving only seven years in prison.

He should have been shot, then hung, and shot once more.

Schulte is also accused of attempting to leak secrets after his arrest by using a contraband cell phone in the federal lockup where he is being held and creating encrypted email and secret social media accounts, proving that he isn't very smart and possibly not a very good coder.

Please consider following this blog, and remember, every time you click on an ad, an angel gets its wings and a terrorist gets his virgins.

Tweet