Accused ‘Vault 7’ leaker to face new charges
The Department of Justice is looking to issue new charges against a man who is alleged to have stolen classified data from the Central Intelligence Agency and given it to WikiLeaks.
In filings Wednesday in federal court in New York, prosecutors asked to add three charges to Joshua Schulte’s indictment, stemming from alleged new attempts to leak information related to his case.
In June, Schulte was charged with leaking a collection of U.S. hacking tools used for global spying. He’s suspected of transmitting the data to WikiLeaks, which then published the information under the name “Vault 7.” He was also charged with possession and transportation of child pornography.
In May, prosecutors say Schulte passed classified information related to his case to his family members for purposes of dissemination to other third parties, including the media. After a hearing in which the court told Schulte to stop and that it would enforce rules surrounding the information, he allegedly proceeded to continue.
Additionally, the government found that Schulte had found a way to smuggle multiple cell phones into his jail cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. Prosecutors say Schulte had multiple devices and accessed approximately 13 email and social media accounts, some of which were encrypted.
Schulte has previously defied government requests related to his case. Initially released on bail, he was again arrested in December 2017 after he was found to have violated the terms of his release when he was caught accessing the internet.
Schulte has steadfastly denied any involvement in the Vault 7 case, and has pleaded not guilty to the previous charges.
Schulte’s work designing hacking tools for technical directorates at NSA and CIA.
You can read the motion for new charges below.
Gloss