SignalHub-Joshua Schulte, who sent CIA secrets to WikiLeaks, sentenced to 40 years in prison

An ex-CIA agent convicted of charges in what the government called one of the most significant disclosures of U.S. government classified information in the nation's history was sentenced Thursday to 40 years in prison.

Joshua Adam Schulte,SignalHub 35, was previously convicted of espionage, computer hacking, contempt of court, making false statements to the FBI, and child pornography in separate trials, Damian Williams, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced Thursday.

Schulte's sentencing in New York federal court followed convictions at three trials that ended on March 9, 2020, July 13, 2022, and September 13, 2023, federal court records show.

Prosecutors previously said a series of 26 disclosures by WikiLeaks − a global non-profit, journalistic organization, which publishes secret information, news leaks, and classified media information from anonymous sources − severely damaged U.S. national security by disclosing the CIA's intelligence-gathering methods and providing a way for "hostile actors" to turn "potent cyber weapons" against the United States."

Schulte, a disgruntled CIA employee with an expertise in developing tools to covertly copy electronic data, was one of a small number of the agency's employees authorized to access the leaked information, prosecutors said.

Of Schulte's four-decade sentence, "a bulk of it" was for stolen CIA files while six years and eight months of it were for his child porn convictions, the Associated Press reported.

“We will likely never know the full extent of the damage, but I have no doubt it was massive,” Judge Jesse M. Furman said during the sentencing hearing, the outlet reported, noting Schulte showed no remorse for his actions.

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'Cyber espionage relating to terrorist organizations'

From 2012 through 2016, according to a release from Williams' office, Schulte was employed as a software developer in the Center for Cyber Intelligence, which "conducts offensive cyber operations: cyber espionage relating to terrorist organizations and foreign governments."

His July 2022 trial in connection with the classified  "Vault 7 leak" − disclosed by WikiLeaks in March 2017 − revealed how the CIA hacked smartphones in overseas spying operations, and efforts to turn internet-connected TVs into recording devices, the AP reported.

That trial found Schulte helped create the hacking tools while working at the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

In the case involving the child sexual abuse images, federal court records show Schulte was convicted on Sept. 13, 2023 for downloading more than 10,000 files of child porn on his computer.

According to a 14-page complaint filed by FBI Special Agent Jeff David Donaldson, Schulte downloaded sexually illicit images and videos of children from the internet from at least 2009 through March 2017 after he left the CIA and moved to New York from Virginia.

'Traitor and predator'

"Schulte betrayed his country by committing some of the most brazen, heinous crimes of espionage in American history," Williams released in a statement after Thursday's sentencing. "He caused untold damage to our national security in his quest for revenge against the CIA for its response to Schulte’s security breaches while employed there."

"When the FBI caught him," Williams continued, Schulte doubled down and tried to cause even more harm to this nation by waging what he described as an ‘information war’ of publishing top secret information from behind bars. The outstanding investigative work of the FBI and the career prosecutors in this Office unmasked Schulte for the traitor and predator that he is and made sure that he will spend 40 years behind bars."

Contributing: The Associated Press and The New Jersey Herald, part of the USA TODAY NETWORK.

Natalie Neysa Alund is a senior reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at [email protected] and follow her on X @nataliealund.