Joshua Schulte

Joshua Schulte
Schulte incarcerated inside the Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York
Born (1988-09-25) September 25, 1988 (age 36)
NationalityAmerican
Other names
  • Kinetic Panda[1]
  • Nuclear Option[2]
  • Voldemort[2]
OccupationSoftware Engineer
EmployerCentral Intelligence Agency
Known forConvicted of the leak of classified information known as Vault 7 to WikiLeaks
Criminal charges
  • Transmission of a harmful computer command
  • unauthorized access to a computer to obtain national defense information
  • gathering and transmitting unlawfully possessed national defense information
  • receiving, possessing, and transporting child pornography

Joshua Adam Schulte (born September 25, 1988) is a former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) employee who was convicted of leaking classified documents to WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks published the documents as Vault 7, which The New York Times called "the largest loss of classified documents in the agency's history and a huge embarrassment for C.I.A. officials."[3][4][5] After his conviction, the Department of Justice called it "one of the most brazen and damaging acts of espionage in American history."[6]

On September 13, 2023, Schulte was also convicted of receiving, possessing, and transporting child sexual abuse images.[7][8] On February 1, 2024, he was sentenced to 40 years in prison for espionage and child pornography.[9]

  1. ^ "USA vs. Schulte" (PDF). August 31, 2021. p. 18. Kinetic Panda (KP) was interviewed by FBI New York Special Agents Jeff D. DONALDSON and Richard J. EVANECH at different locations in New York between March 15, 2017 and March 16, 2017.
  2. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference tny-the-surreal-case was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Shane, Scott and Goldman, Adam (15 May 2018). "Suspect Identified in C.I.A. Leak Was Charged, but Not for the Breach". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 20 March 2019. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
  4. ^ Harris, Shane (15 May 2018). "U.S. identifies suspect in major leak of CIA hacking tools". The Washington Post. Archived from the original on 20 March 2019. Retrieved 16 March 2019.
  5. ^ Shanahan, Ed (2022-07-13). "Ex-C.I.A. Engineer Convicted in Biggest Theft Ever of Agency Secrets". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2022-07-28.
  6. ^ "Statement Of U.S. Attorney Damian Williams On The Espionage Conviction Of Ex-CIA Programmer Joshua Adam Schulte". justice.gov. 2022-07-13. Retrieved 2022-07-26.
  7. ^ "Ex-CIA employee snared earlier in classified info bust found guilty of possessing child abuse images". AP News. 2023-09-13. Retrieved 2023-10-11.
  8. ^ "Southern District of New York | Joshua Adam Schulte Convicted After Trial Of Multiple Child Pornography Crimes | United States Department of Justice". justice.gov. 2023-09-13. Retrieved 2023-09-15.
  9. ^ Russell, Josh (February 1, 2024). "Former CIA coder sentenced to 40 years in prison for WikiLeaks 'Vault 7' breach".