FBI Has Suspect in Damaging CIA Leak of Spying Code

The FBI thinks it knows who leaked top secret spying code from the CIA last year, but the bureau does not yet have the evidence to bring charges.

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that Joshua Adam Schulte is believed to have leaked the code from the CIA's Engineering Development Group, information that was published by WikiLeaks in March 2017.

Schulte has actually been in jail since being indicted for possession of child pornography last September. He denies those charges, saying the server the material was discovered on was available for use by as many as 100 other people.

Schulte worked for the CIA until 2016.

The leak of the CIA code was damaging because it gave away secrets of how the agency uses cyberweapons to spy on overseas targets.

Authorities appeared to piece together several bits of information to come up with the theory Schulte is responsible for the leak. That includes the fact they he is believed to have used software called Tor, which allows users to communicate and transmit information over the Internet anonymously, and the fact he was planning a vacation to Cancun, Mexico.

"Due to these unfortunate coincidences the FBI ultimately made the snap judgment that I was guilty of the leaks and targeted me," Schulte wrote in a statement obtained by the Post.

The FBI was originally focusing on CIA contractors as potential suspects in the case before zeroing in on Schulte.

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