Joshua Schulte, who prosecutors said was responsible for agency’s largest data breach, also guilty of possessing child abuse images

A former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) software engineer who was convicted for carrying out the largest theft of classified information in the agency’s history and of charges related to child abuse imagery was sentenced to 40 years in prison on Thursday.

The 40-year sentence by US district judge Jesse Furman was for “crimes of espionage, computer hacking, contempt of court, making false statements to the FBI, and child pornography”, federal prosecutors said in a statement. The judge did not impose a life sentence as sought by prosecutors.

Joshua Schulte was convicted in July 2022 on four counts each of espionage and computer hacking and one count of lying to FBI agents, after giving classified materials to the whistleblowing agency WikiLeaks in the so-called Vault 7 leak. Last August, a judge mostly upheld the conviction.

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  • lennybird@lemmy.worldEnglish
    3610·
    9 months ago

    WikiLeaks, Snowden fleeing to Russia, Greenwald dialing up the pro-Kremlin talking-points over the years, the call-and-response “Russia, if you’re listening,” the hand-delivered letter from Trump to Putin by Rand Paul, the 4th of July closed-door Kremlin meeting by Republican congressman, the Trump tower meeting with Natalia Veselnitskaya, the Russian money laundered through the NRA, the strange Russian women amidst right-wing extremist groups. Manafort, Flynn, Stone regurgitating Kremlin talking-points while the Kremlin is telling RT to air as many Tucker Carlson clips as possible, Trump saying he trusts Putin’s word against the unprecedented consensus of his own intelligence agencies and advisors, all the while trying to withdraw from NATO that otherwise has bipartisan support. I probably haven’t even scratched the surface…

    I think I counted a half dozen or so individuals arrested by the FBI in the past year or two trying to offload secrets to Russia.

    If anyone hasn’t listened to the Ultra podcast regarding the Nazi infiltration of America under the direction of Hitler to sow division under ideological and racial grounds in America, while successfully corrupting many Congressmen at the time… The parallels couldn’t be more striking to today.

    • quindraco@lemm.ee
      395·
      9 months ago

      It will never stop disappointing me when someone looks down on Snowden after all he gave up for your benefit.

      • fishos@lemmy.worldEnglish
        183·
        9 months ago

        Yeah. Nothing precludes Russia from simply being the enemy of the US and “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”. Of course they’d love Snowden. Doesn’t mean he was a Russian plant from the get go. That’s just conspiracy theory nonsense. I’ll give OP that Russia is probably doing many shady things. But let’s not turn everything that favors them into some grand, all-enconpassing, conspiracy. That’s how you start to become a whack job. Plenty of things are just happenstance.

        • lennybird@lemmy.worldEnglish
          67·
          9 months ago

          It doesn’t take much ink to connect these dots. It would be woefully naive if not daft to suggest this is some McCarthy hysteria after all that has been exposed in the last decade. Of all the places Snowden flees to and the complete shift to a Kremlin mouthpiece Greenwald has become, it absolutely is worthy of suspicion.

            • lennybird@lemmy.worldEnglish
              32·
              9 months ago

              A fair point, though I do wonder if someone is willing to live in exile in Russia of all places, I wonder why they might not take the Ellsberg approach. Just a strange notion to protest an act of your own government, then flee to an objectively more corrupt police state and attain citizenship no less. Either way I won’t die on the hill to claim he sold out for Russia versus just being their useful pawn. And of course it doesn’t change the fact that what was exposed needed to be.

          • lennybird@lemmy.worldEnglish
            33·
            9 months ago

            I believe two things can be true at the same time.

            I better clarify this because I suspect reading-comprehension isn’t one’s forte. The two points:

            • Russia is taking advantage of this event to smear the US to its own end goals, and
            • Israel is committing genocide in Gaza

            … Are not mutually-exclusive.

            But I’m not expecting much from someone who wrote gems like:

            Liberals in America are just right wing anti-communists, they’re not leftists at all. As for Bernie, social-democracy is the moderate wing of fascism and that’s why he supports Biden’s genocide.

            Both parties are evil because this is an evil country that must be stopped.

            But I’m quite serious about hating America. No one should be president and we should do everything possible to make that a reality.

            Anyway — more emoticons, please; they exemplify your class!

            • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
              39·
              9 months ago

              Okay, so consider these things also being true:

              1. Russia, like everyone else, interferes in US politics to some extent: the NRA campaign funding scheme, individuals leaking info to Russia, etc.
              2. The US ruling class smears all of its class enemies with imaginary connections to Russia for political gains, regardless of truth.
              3. Again, Russia isn’t alone in interference. Every corporation does it, Israel does it, the EU does it, every bank and billionaire does it, etc. American politics are pay-to-play.

              Also? You aren’t at work, your boss isn’t reading this. Use emojis, have fun, embrace the lower classes 😘

              • lennybird@lemmy.worldEnglish
                31·
                9 months ago

                1. Russia has, by the overwhelming evidence, interfered the most in recent history. Casting it off as, “bUt EVEryOnE DoES iT” doesn’t stop us from recognizing the chief offender.

                2. That seems awfully convenient. Though when state secrets are leaked to Russia and said individuals flee to Russia, those connections… Well, they’re tangible and in plain-sight.

                3. Repeating your first point regarding whataboutism – kinda of strange – is a race-to-the-bottom mindset. Admission that Russia does interfere only lends credence to my points. Neither does “many countries interfere!” make it right.

                Such a peculiar cognitive dissonance between:

                • “Russia does routinely interfere with US Politics and yes many people have been caught up in it.”

                and

                • “The US Bourgouise just use Russia to smear its enemies!”
                • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
                  17·
                  9 months ago

                  Russia has, by the overwhelming evidence, interfered the most in recent history.

                  I want a source for this. What I know is that Russia spent $300 million since 2014 to influence foreign elections. That’s a lot of money! But, spread that out over multiple countries and multiple election cycles and it seems very clear that Russia has not interfered the most. The 2024 presidential race has, so far, already surpassed $300 million. What it looks like is Russia, like every oil&gas company, influences US elections. It’s bad, it’s not special.

                  US’s elections are pay-to-play thanks to clownish Supreme Court decisions like Buckley v. Valeo (which found that money is speech and limiting speech is a violation of the 1st amendment), the Bennett decision (which found that public campaign financing is unconstitutional because it dilutes the value of private spending and thus private “speech”) and, of course, the Citizens United decision which I’m sure you’re already familiar with. We have a problem and blaming it all on Russia is unserious.

                  Also, in the course of looking things up for this argument, did you know that AIPAC is set to spend more than $100 million this election cycle to defeat US candidates opposed to the genocide in Gaza. In one election! In one country!

                  That seems awfully convenient. Though when state secrets are leaked to Russia and said individuals flee to Russia, those connections… Well, they’re tangible and in plain-sight.

                  You’re talking about Snowden? State secrets were leaked to the world and then he fled to Russia to avoid going to US prison. That doesn’t really imply he leaked secrets on behalf of Russia, merely that Russia was willing to shelter him for political gain.

                  Repeating your first point regarding whataboutism – kinda of strange – is a race-to-the-bottom mindset. Admission that Russia does interfere only lends credence to my points. Neither does “many countries interfere!” make it right.

                  When did I ever say anything about it being right? My only point is that Russia isn’t unique and blaming everything on Russia is 🤡

                  • lennybird@lemmy.worldEnglish
                    21·
                    9 months ago

                    It’s amazing what you can do when your Ruble is worth a penny to the US Dollar; to have spent that much money relative to Russia’s economy is quite substantial, really. Besides, it wouldn’t take that many Russian trolls paid cheaply to yield an impact, as our own department of justice said. But regardless, the evidence speaks for itself – for I inquire: Is there anyone you know of who has spent more or is of a greater concern to Federal agencies? Good luck with that.

                    Sure, Buckley v. Valeo, SpeechNow vs. FEC, Citizens United – I don’t disagree these are monumental issues just the same. None legalized foreign interference, however. So I’m not sure what the point is you’re trying to make. Why should we downplay Russia’s outsized influence fanning the flames of right-wing extremism in America (Funny, The Base right-wing militia leader fled to Russia, too) and clearly taking a page out of what Nazis did exactly during in 1930s America? Besides, we can walk and chew bubble-gum at the same time.

                    Also, in the course of looking things up for this argument, did you know that AIPAC is set to spend more than $100 million this election cycle to defeat US candidates opposed to the genocide in Gaza. In one election! In one country!

                    I agree, that is terrible.

                    You’re talking about Snowden? State secrets were leaked to the world and then he fled to Russia to avoid going to US prison. That doesn’t really imply he leaked secrets on behalf of Russia, merely that Russia was willing to shelter him for political gain.

                    Either way, Russia benefits. I don’t have much sympathy and don’t view him as some noble martyr when you flee to country with objectively-worse human rights and corruption records but we may just have to agree to disagree on this. Still I can simultaneously recognize the merit of what he leaked as being productive for domestic dialogue and the debate of privacy vs. security.

                    When did I ever say anything about it being right? My only point is that Russia isn’t unique and blaming everything on Russia is 🤡

                    Where did I say I blamed “everything” on Russia?

                    And sure, Russia may not be unique, but it’s by far the biggest fish in that category until proven otherwise. (China likely second).