Joshua Solti, a 33-year-old programmer, “was convicted of one of the most shameful and damaging acts of espionage in American history,” New York federal prosecutor Damian Williams said.
A former CIA informant was found guilty by a New York court on Wednesday in his trial over the 2017 WikiLeaks leak of cyber-espionage tools belonging to the US intelligence agency, which authorities have strongly condemned.
Joshua Solti, a 33-year-old programmer, “was convicted of one of the most shameful and damaging acts of espionage in American history,” New York U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.
In 2016, while working for an elite group specializing in cyber-espionage, Williams began amassing a collection he christened “Vault 7”, containing hacking tools, malware, viruses, Trojan Horses…
WikiLeaks began publishing the 8,761 documents in March 2017, putting US intelligence in an extremely difficult position and giving professional and amateur hackers the same tools that US spies had at their disposal.
“The source wishes to start a public debate on the security, creation, use, spread and democratic control of these cyber weapons,” the WikiLeaks editorial team commented at the time.
Prosecutors, on the other hand, argued that Joshua Solti wanted to take revenge on the CIA, in whose directorate he accused him of not taking his side in conflicts he had with his colleagues.
After developing a “disgust” with the agency, he began “covertly gathering these tools and sending them to WikiLeaks,” noted prosecutor Williams, “knowing that the collateral damage of his revenge would pose a significant threat to the security of country”.
The young man, who immediately came under suspicion, was secretly charged in 2017 after a large collection of child pornography was found on his computers. His charges were later upgraded to theft and transfer of classified information under anti-espionage legislation.
In 2020, a jury had found him guilty of perjury, but failed to reach a verdict on the other charges and the proceedings were declared a mistrial.
After a new trial and four days of deliberations, a jury found him guilty Friday of eight counts of espionage and lying to FBI agents.
He will be sentenced later.
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