CIA Analyst Pleads Guilty To Leaking Israeli Plans To Attack Iran
Rahman pleaded guilty to two counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information related to the national defense and is scheduled to be sentenced on May 15, 2025.
UNITED STATES - A CIA analyst has pleaded guilty to leaking Israeli plans to attack Iran publicly on a social media platform on October 2024.
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34-year-old Asif William Rahman had been an employee of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) since 2016 and had a "Top-Secret security clearance with access to Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI)," according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
According to court documents, and a statement by the DoJ, on Oct. 17, 2024, Rahman accessed and printed two Top Secret documents containing National Defense Information regarding a U.S. foreign ally and its planned actions against a foreign adversary.
Although the statement by the DoJ does not explicitly state the adversary was Iran, and the ally was Israel, the analyst was accused last year of leaking the plans. During his detention, prosecutor Troy Edwards said Rahman was motivated by ideology, but did not elaborate what the ideology was at the time.
"Rahman removed the documents, photographed them, and transmitted them to individuals he knew were not entitled to receive them. By Oct. 18, 2024, the documents appeared publicly on multiple social media platforms, complete with the classification markings," the Department of Justice stated.
Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Department’s National Security Division said in a statement, "Mr. Rahman betrayed the trust of the American people by unlawfully sharing classified national defense information he swore an oath to protect".
He added, “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.”
Rahman pleaded guilty to two counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information related to the national defense and is scheduled to be sentenced on May 15, 2025.
"He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for both counts in the plea agreement. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors," the DoJ said.
Former CIA Analyst Pleads Guilty to Transmitting Top Secret National Defense Information
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