'Terrorism Enhancement' Applied Against Ex-CIA Programmer For Leaking Represents A Stark Development
Former CIA programmer Joshua Schulte was sentenced to just over 33 years in prison for leaking 'Vault 7' materials to WikiLeaks
The following article was made possible by paid subscribers of The Dissenter. Become a subscriber and support independent journalism.
On February 1, a United States judge took the extraordinary step of applying a “terrorism enhancement” when sentencing former CIA programmer Joshua Schulte to 40 years in prison.
The application of a terrorism enhancement represents a stark development in leak prosecutions that may carry profound implications for whistleblowing and freedom of the press.
Schulte was accused of disclosing CIA hacking materials (“Vault 7”) to WikiLeaks, and a jury found him guilty of several Espionage Act-related offenses in July 2022.
Thirty-three years and four months of the sentence stemmed from the Espionage Act-related offenses. (The remainder came from “child sexual abuse material” that was found in Schulte’s possession, a serious matter which was handled at a separate trial in 2023.)
An estimate from Schulte’s defense indicated that the enhancement added anywhere from 10 to 12 years to his prison sentence.
The enhancement adopted by Judge Jesse Furman was applied to one of the computer crimes that Schulte was convicted of committing under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA)—the single count of “unauthorized access to a computer to obtain national defense information.”
Read the full article at The Dissenter.
Thank you for your reporting, Kevin!