The Trump administration believes it has identified the person who leaked the CIA’s cybertools for foreign espionage operations last year, according to a report published Tuesday afternoon.
Joshua Adam Schulte, who worked for the CIA’s Engineering Development Group, was named in a Washington Post report as the government’s primary suspect.
But the Justice Department so far has been unable to prosecute Schulte, who is being held in a New York City jail on charges of possessing, receiving, and transporting child pornography. The Post report did not explain why charges have yet to be brought.
The suspect is believed to have leaked the information to WikiLeaks, federal prosecutors said during a January hearing. WikiLeaks then published the documents as “Vault 7” in March 2017.
Schulte previously worked for the National Security Agency. During his stint at the CIA, he had complained about “incompetent management and bureaucracy” to the agency’s inspector general and a congressional oversight committee.
In a statement to the Post, Schulte said he was labeled as the “only one to have recently departed [the CIA] on poor terms” and that because he had been planning a vacation to Cancun, Mexico, the agency jumped at the chance to hold him responsible for the leaks.
“Due to these unfortunate coincidences the FBI ultimately made the snap judgment that I was guilty of the leaks and targeted me,” Schulte wrote.
