Ex-CIA Engineer Who Leaked “Vault 7” Hacks And Info To WikiLeaks Found Guilty

Joshua Schulte has been convicted of sending the CIA's "Vault 7" cyber-warfare tools to the whistle-blowing platform. He had denied the allegations since he was originally charged. He was convicted on July 13, 2022, at retrial on nine counts related to illegal handling of classified information and obstruction of justice, no sentencing date has been set yet for the charges. Arrested in 2018, his trial began in February of 2020 where federal prosecutors asserted "the single biggest leak of classified national defense information in the history of the CIA" to take revenge on his former colleagues and bosses. Schulte's lead defense attorney, Sabrina Shroff, told jurors that her client was "a pain in the ass to everyone at the CIA," but argued that "Being a difficult employee does not make you a criminal." Schulte pleaded not guilty. After weeks of testimony and deliberation the jury convicted him  two counts: contempt of court and making false statements to the FBI. However, jurors were deadlocked on eight other counts, including the most serious of illegal gathering and transmission of national defense information. Although the judge declared a mistrial, the government chose to retry the case. Additionally, Schulte faced a separate federal trial on charges of possessing child pornography which ended with a hung jury.