Ex-CIA software engineer who leaked to WikiLeaks sentenced to 40 years

2 Feb 2024

Joshua Schulte had been found guilty of handing over classified materials in so-called Vault 7 leak.

The so-called Vault 7 leak was a major embarrassment for the CIA [File: Larry Downing/Reuters]

A former CIA software engineer has been sentenced to 40 years in prison for leaking classified information and possessing child sexual abuse material.

Joshua Schulte, 35, was found guilty in 2022 of four counts each of espionage and computer hacking and one count of lying to FBI agents after handing over classified materials to whistleblowing organisation WikiLeaks.

Schulte was also convicted of contempt of court and making false statements in 2020, and possession of child abuse material last year.

The bulk of the sentence announced on Thursday was imposed over the so-called Vault 7 leak, which revealed embarrassing details of the CIA’s spying overseas.

The leak, which the CIA called a “digital Pearl Harbor”, showed how US spies hacked Apple and Android smartphones and sought to turn internet-connected televisions into listening devices.

The security breach prompted US officials to plan for an “all-out war” against Wikileaks, including discussing the possible kidnapping or assassination of its founder Julian Assange, Yahoo News reported, citing anonymous officials.

Assange was indicted on espionage charges in 2019 – a move that prompted condemnation by press freedom organisations – and is currently in Britain fighting extradition to the US.

Judge Jesse M Furman said the full extent of the damage caused by Schulte would likely never be known “but I have no doubt it was massive”.

Furman said Schulte had also continued to commit crimes while in jail by trying to leak more classified materials and by creating a hidden file on his computer that contained child sexual abuse images.

US Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement that Schulte had committed some of the “most brazen, heinous crimes of espionage in American history”.

“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,” Williams said.

Addressing the court ahead of his sentencing, Schulte complained about harsh conditions he had endured in detention, including being denied hot water and being subjected to constant noise and artificial light.

Schulte also said it was unfair for prosecutors to seek a life sentence as they had previously offered a plea deal that would have seen him sentenced to 10 years in prison.

“This is not justice the government seeks, but vengeance,” he said.

• The trial date in the federal election subversion case against former President Donald Trump has been postponed due to ongoing appeals about presidential power.
• Trump's team is seeking further delays and focusing on the fact that a new trial date has not yet been set.
• A ruling in favor of prosecutors that allows the case to proceed is expected to be appealed, resulting in additional delays.

Archived link: https://web.archive.org/web/20240201053834/https://www.politico.com/news/2024/01/31/california-black-reparations-bills-00138854

SACRAMENTO, California — California state lawmakers introduced a slate of reparations bills on Wednesday, including a proposal to restore property taken by “race-based” cases of eminent domain and a potentially unconstitutional measure to provide state funding for “specific groups.”

The package marks a first-in-the-nation effort to give restitution to Black Americans who have been harmed by centuries of racist policies and practices. California’s legislative push is the culmination of years of research and debate, including 111-pages of recommendations issued last year by a task force.

Other states like Colorado, New York, and Massachusetts have commissioned reparations studies or task forces, but California is the first to attempt to turn those ideas into law.

The 14 measures introduced by the Legislative Black Caucus touch on education, civil rights and criminal justice, including reviving a years-old effort to restrict solitary confinement that failed to make it out of the statehouse as recently as last year.

Not included is any type of financial compensation to descendants of Black slaves, a polarizing proposal that has received a cool response from many state Democrats, including Gov. Gavin Newsom.

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Former Trump White House official Peter Navarro was sentenced Thursday to four months in prison for contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol attack. The Department of Justice requested a 6-month sentence for the evasion; however, Judge Amit Mehta gave Navarro the same sentence as Bannon received last year.

The only thing that they added is really a requirement that an individual challenging the book must be in the school their challenging it in and that they can ban books statewide if a few charter schools say the book is indecent (unelected officials)

ST. JAMES, La. — For a little while, it seemed like Cancer Alley would finally get justice.

The infamous 85-mile stretch between Baton Rouge and New Orleans is one of the nation’s most polluted corners; residents here have spent decades fighting for clean air and water. That fight escalated in 2022, when local environmental justice groups filed complaints with the Environmental Protection Agency, alleging that the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality had engaged in racial discrimination under the Civil Rights Act. In a watershed moment, the EPA opened a civil rights investigation into Louisiana’s permitting practices.

But just when the EPA appeared poised to force the LDEQ to make meaningful changesOpens in a new tab, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry — now the state’s governor — sued. Landry’s suit challenges a key piece of the agency’s regulatory authority: the disparate impact standard, which says that policies that cause disproportionate harm to people of color are in violation of the Civil Rights Act. This enables the EPA to argue that it’s discriminatory for state agencies to keep greenlighting contaminating facilities in communities of color already overburdened by pollution — such as in Cancer Alley — even if official policies do not announce discrimination as their intent.

Five weeks after Landry filed his suit, the EPA dropped its investigation, effectively leaving Cancer Alley residents to continue the struggle on their own.

“It was devastating,” recalled Sharon Lavigne, founder of the grassroots organization Rise St. James. For her work spearheading the fight to stop polluters in Cancer Alley, Lavigne is regarded as a figureheadOpens in a new tab of the environmental justice movement. Now, it appears that Landry’s suit could have a reverberating impactOpens in a new tab far from her hometown, as the EPA backs down from environmental justice cases across the country.

In Flint, Michigan, advocates say that Landry’s suit has already led to the collapse of their own chance at justice. This month, the EPA dropped a Houston case in the same way, without mandating any sweeping reforms. Attorneys told The Intercept they are concerned about the possibility of similarly disappointing outcomes in Detroit, St. Louis, eastern North Carolina, and elsewhere.

Experts say that the EPA appears to be shying away from certain Civil Rights Act investigations in states that are hostile to environmental justice, due to fears that Landry’s suit or similar efforts could make their way to the conservative Supreme Court. If that happened, the court appears ready to rule against the EPA — a verdict that could not only undermine the agency’s authority, but also significantly limit the ability of all federal agencies to enforce civil rights law.

“The lawsuit does not just challenge the EPA’s investigation and potential result of our complaint,” said Lisa Jordan, an attorney who helped file the Cancer Alley complaint. “It challenges the entire regulatory program.”

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.cafe/post/2271277

Backup in case you see a paywall: https://archive.is/yMpm1

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced Wednesday that he is suspending his 2024 presidential campaign. He was one of just a few Republican hopefuls who legitimately criticized former President Trump throughout his campaign.

If only they listened to anyone other then the insanely rich...

Trump’s comments on the shooting that occurred about 36 hours earlier were the first he had made addressing the violence.

• Trump's Pressure: Former President Donald Trump was recorded pressuring Michigan canvassers not to certify the 2020 presidential election.
• The Phone Call: The call targeted Monica Palmer and William Hartmann, Republican members of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers, after a meeting on Nov. 17, 2020.
• RNC Involvement: RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel was also involved, advising the canvassers not to sign the certification and offering attorneys.
• Legal Actions: Trump faces federal charges of election interference, and Michigan's attorney general filed charges against 16 Republican activists related to the election.

After George Santos was expelled, Kevin McCarthy resigns, and Bill Johnson takes a university presidency position, the Republicans may only have a 1 seat majority in the House by January 2024.

Two months after a prominent conservative activist and fundraiser was caught hosting white supremacist Nick Fuentes, leaders of the Republican Party of Texas have voted against barring the party from associating with known Nazi sympathizers and Holocaust deniers.

In a 32-29 vote on Saturday, members of the Texas GOP’s executive committee stripped a pro-Israel resolution of a clause that would have included the ban. In a separate move that stunned some members, roughly half of the board also tried to prevent a record of their vote from being kept.

In rejecting the proposed ban, the executive committee's majority delivered a serious blow to a faction of members that has called for the party to confront its ties to groups that have recently employed or associated with outspoken white supremacists and extremists.

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