The former CIA analyst Asif William Rahman, 34, of Vienna, Va., pleaded guilty on Friday to leaking classified information about Israel’s military response to Iran’s Oct. 1 missile attacks.
“Mr. Rahman betrayed the trust of the American people by unlawfully sharing classified national defense information he swore an oath to protect,” stated Matthew Olsen, a U.S. assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s national security division.
“Today’s guilty plea demonstrates that the Justice Department will spare no effort to swiftly find and aggressively prosecute those who harm the United States by illegally disclosing our national security secrets,” Olsen added.
Robert Wells, executive assistant director of the FBI national security branch, stated that “with today’s plea, Asif Rahman acknowledges he betrayed the trust of his country by sharing classified information in spite of the risk to the United States and our allies.”
“Government employees who are granted security clearances and given access to our nation’s classified information must promise to protect it,” Wells added. “Rahman blatantly violated that pledge and took multiple steps to hide his actions.”
The Justice Department announcement didn’t mention Israel. On Oct. 1, Iran fired more than 180 ballistic missiles at Israel—its second direct attack on the Jewish state. Israel intercepted most of the missiles with U.S. and Jordanian military support.
It stated that per court documents, Rahman accessed and printed two top secret documents on Oct. 17 about “a U.S. foreign ally and its planned actions against a foreign adversary.”
“Rahman removed the documents, photographed them and transmitted them to individuals he knew were not entitled to receive them,” per the department. “By Oct. 18, 2024, the documents appeared publicly on multiple social media platforms, complete with the classification markings.”
Rahman also “deleted and edited journal entries and written work product on his personal electronic devices to conceal his personal opinions on U.S. policy and drafted entries to construct a false narrative regarding his activity,” the Justice Department stated.
“Rahman also destroyed multiple electronic devices, including a personal mobile device and an internet router he used to transmit classified information and photographs of classified documents, and discarded the destroyed devices in public trash receptacles in an effort to thwart potential investigations into him and his unlawful conduct,” it added.
Rahman also accessed and printed secret national defense information “repeatedly” between spring 2024 and that November and took the documents to his home, where he copied them and “altered them in an effort to conceal their source and his activity,” per the Justice Department.
“Rahman then communicated top secret information that he learned in the course of his employment to multiple individuals he knew were not entitled to receive it,” it added.
A grand jury indicted him on Nov. 7, and he was arrested when he came to work on Nov. 12. “He has remained in custody since his arrest,” the Justice Department said.
Rahman faces 10 years in prison for the two counts to which he pleaded guilty, of “willful retention and transmission of classified information related to the national defense.” His sentencing is scheduled for May 15. JNS
{Matzav.com}