(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Joshua Schulte, a former CIA employee and the alleged culprit of the biggest leak in agency history, was found guilty of three child pornography charges on Wednesday.
Schulte’s charges stem from an encrypted cache of more than 3,000 child pornographic images and videos found on his home desktop computer.
Some of Schulte’s supporters believe he was the CIA’s patsy for the “Vault 7” leak —which included information about how the CIA used smartphones, smart TVs and almost any device that had a computer chip and was connected to the internet as listening devices.
Schulte’s supporters have noted that the child pornography wasn’t actually his, but that he hosted it on something akin to the 4chan and 8chan servers—something even his supporters admit is still a heinous crime.
Schulte said he never “received” or “disseminated” any child pornography personally. He claimed that child pornographers saw that his server supported “unfettered free speech,” and they exploited it to trade illegal images and videos.
But a jury didn’t buy Schulte’s arguments. The Justice Department celebrated upon the alleged leaker’s conviction.
“Joshua Schulte has already been held accountable for endangering our nation’s security, and today’s verdict holds him accountable for endangering our nation’s children as well,” said U.S. Attorney Damian Williams in a press release.
Schulte’s conviction for the Vault 7 leaks came last year after his second trial. The jury on his 2020 trial couldn’t reach a decision.
Schulte, as a consequence of the mistrial and lengthy process to prepare for this trial, has been incarcerated since 2018.
He filed a formal complaint in January 2021, explaining to a federal judge that his living conditions were “below that of impoverished persons living in third world countries.”
“It is barbaric and inhumane to lock human beings into boxes for years and years — it is a punishment worse than death,” he wrote.
Schulte, who did not deny his role in the development of the program, said that he was simply the scapegoat for the CIA and FBI, taking the blame for their embarrassing leak and invasive searching procedures.
Some, including former CIA employee John Kiriakou—who blew the whistle on the agency’s post-9/11 torture program—still believe Schulte.
“Prosecutors had literally no forensic evidence that Schulte had taken the data from the CIA and transferred it to WikiLeaks. But they contended that he was a computer genius so brilliant that he was able to cover his tracks,” Kiriakou wrote after Schulte was convicted last year.
“They alleged that he leaked the information because he was a disgruntled former CIA employee who hated his boss, couldn’t get along with his coworkers and sought revenge against the agency,” he wrote.
“That was enough for the jury.”
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
