Coder charged in massive CIA leak portrayed as vindictive

A Manhattan jury heard conflicting portrayals of Joshua Schulte, a former CIA coder accused of sending the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks a large portion of the agency’s computer hacking arsenal tools the agency had used to conduct espionage operations overseas. 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.

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.

Source: go.com