A federal judge in New York on Monday declared a mistrial in the case of a former CIA software engineer who was accused of stealing a massive trove of the agency’s classified hacking and tools and leaking it to WikiLeaks whistleblower website.
While the jury was unable to reach a verdict on eight counts of the theft and transmission of CIA’s confidential documents, it did find ex-CIA Joshua Schulte guilty on two counts of contempt of court and making false statements to the FBI investigators.
Schulte’s lawyers last month asked the court for a mistrial in this case claiming the prosecutors withheld evidence that could exonerate his client during the four-week trial in the Manhattan federal court.
Potentially, as a result of this, jurors failed to reach a unanimous agreement on the most severe charges against Schulte after deliberating since last week.
Schulte, who designed hacking tools and malware for both the CIA and NSA to break into adversaries computers, was arrested in August 2017 and initially charged with possession and transportation of child pornography.
However, later in 2018, US prosecutors unveiled new charges against Schulte accusing him of stealing and leaking…
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