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| Courtroom sketch by Joshua Schulte at March 4, 2020 jury deliberations in NYC |
Note that some of what is written here is meant as sarcasm, snark, and my opinion about the guy. It should be easily recognizable to those of you who read Brain Flushings.
Joshua Schulte, 35, is a former CIA software engineer who provided Wikileaks with a treasure trove of stolen CIA secrets that was released to the public in 2017. It is described as the biggest theft of classified information in CIA history.
He was sentenced in Manhattan federal court on Thursday and will serve only 40 years in prison.
But along with the classified information, Schulte was also found to be in possession of child sexual abuse images and videos, making him not only a traitor, but a pile of human garbage.
"We will likely never know the full extent of the damage, but I have no doubt it was massive," Judge Jesse M. Furman said as he announced the sentence.
The so-called Vault 7 leak exposed how the CIA hacked Apple and Android smartphones in overseas spying operations, and efforts to turn internet-connected televisions into listening devices.
Prior to his arrest, Schulte had helped create the hacking tools as a coder at the agency's headquarters in Langley, Virginia. So he learned to code but perhaps should have been a coal miner and would have avoided the incarceration. Oh wait, he still would have been busted for the child porn.
In requesting a life sentence, Assistant U.S. Attorney David William Denton Jr. asked for a life sentence. He said Schulte was responsible for "the most damaging disclosures of classified information in American history."
Given a chance to speak, Schulte complained mostly about harsh conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, calling his cell, "my torture cage."
"This is not justice the government seeks, but vengeance," the piece of human excrement whined.
Immediately after sentencing, the judge criticized some of Schulte's half-hour of remarks, saying he was "blown away" by Schulte's "complete lack of remorse and acceptance of responsibility."
The judge said Schulte was "not driven by any sense of altruism," but instead was "motivated by anger, spite and perceived grievance" against others at the agency who he believed had ignored his complaints about the work environment and lack of child porn access.
Furman said Schulte continued committing crimes from behind bars by trying to leak more classified materials and by creating a hidden file on his computer that contained 2,400 images of child sexual abuse that he continued to view from jail.
Last fall, he was convicted in the case over the child sexual abuse images, which originated when a computer that Schulte possessed after he left the CIA and moved to New York from Virginia was found to contain the images and videos that he had downloaded from the internet from 2009 to March 2017.
Of the 40-year sentence, Furman said the bulk of it was for the CIA theft while six years and eight months of it were for the convictions over the child sexual abuse materials.
In requesting a life sentence, Assistant U.S. Attorney David William Denton Jr. asked for a life sentence. He said Schulte was responsible for "the most damaging disclosures of classified information in American history."
Given a chance to speak, Schulte complained mostly about harsh conditions at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, calling his cell, "my torture cage."
Boo-freaking-hoo.
The traitor also claimed that prosecutors had once offered him a plea deal that would have called for a 10-year prison sentence and that it was unfair of them to now seek a life term. He said he objected to the deal because he would have been required to relinquish his right to appeal. It looks as if he chose the wrong door and won the booby prize.
"This is not justice the government seeks, but vengeance," the piece of human excrement whined.
Immediately after sentencing, the judge criticized some of Schulte's half-hour of remarks, saying he was "blown away" by Schulte's "complete lack of remorse and acceptance of responsibility."
The judge said Schulte was "not driven by any sense of altruism," but instead was "motivated by anger, spite and perceived grievance" against others at the agency who he believed had ignored his complaints about the work environment and lack of child porn access.
Furman said Schulte continued committing crimes from behind bars by trying to leak more classified materials and by creating a hidden file on his computer that contained 2,400 images of child sexual abuse that he continued to view from jail.
I don't know about you, but I'm all in for the death sentence for people who commit and support child sexual abuse if it can be clearly proven.
During a two-hour proceeding, Furman noted a one-page letter the government had forwarded from CIA Deputy Director David S. Cohen, who described Schulte's crimes as causing "exceptionally grave harm to U.S. national security and the CIA."
During a two-hour proceeding, Furman noted a one-page letter the government had forwarded from CIA Deputy Director David S. Cohen, who described Schulte's crimes as causing "exceptionally grave harm to U.S. national security and the CIA."
Cohen added: "His actions cost the Agency hundreds of millions of dollars; degraded its ability to collect foreign intelligence against America's adversaries; placed directly at risk CIA personnel, programs, and assets; and jeopardized U.S. national security by degrading the CIA's ability to conduct its mission. In short, Mr. Schulte's actions inflicted heavy costs on the United States."
A mistrial was declared in 2020 at Schulte's original trial after the jury was deadlocked on the most serious counts, including illegal gathering and transmission of national defense information.
He was convicted at a July 2022 trial of charges in connection with the classified leak.
Last fall, he was convicted in the case over the child sexual abuse images, which originated when a computer that Schulte possessed after he left the CIA and moved to New York from Virginia was found to contain the images and videos that he had downloaded from the internet from 2009 to March 2017.
Of the 40-year sentence, Furman said the bulk of it was for the CIA theft while six years and eight months of it were for the convictions over the child sexual abuse materials.
In a statement afterward, U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said Schulte "betrayed his country by committing some of the most brazen, heinous crimes of espionage in American history. When the FBI caught him, Schulte doubled down and tried to cause even more harm to this nation by waging what he describe as an 'information' war' of publishing top secret information from behind bars."
Meanwhile, Wikileaks founder Julian Assange remains in Britain, where he has battled the courts for years to avoid being sent to the U.S., where he faces 17 charges of espionage and one charge of computer misuse.
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