Jury Convicts Lubbock Native Joshua Schulte in Largest Leak of Classified Info in CIA History
Thirty-three-year-old ex-CIA employee Joshua Adam Schulte was recently convicted over what Politico described as the "biggest theft of classified information in CIA history" for leaking a massive amount of CIA secrets through WikiLeaks in 2017.
He's come a long way from the scrawny nerd I remember from O.L. Slaton Jr. High School, and it's safe to say he's in a heap of trouble.
I wrote an article about Schulte's alleged crimes over a year ago. Although it didn't seem to get much response locally, Patrick Radden Keefe of The New Yorker came across it and reached out to me for information on what it was like growing up with Schulte. Keefe mentioned a few things I said in a mind-blowing, super in-depth article published on June 6th, roughly one month before his conviction.
Keefe's article delves into just exactly what occurred at the CIA, which is a bit confusing and technical for a simple person like me, but it boils down to what seems like an instance of revenge from a disgruntled CIA employee.
Schulte continues to maintain his innocence, but things don't look good for him. He's been held behind bars since 2018 and has complained that he's been treated with cruel and unusual punishment while awaiting trial in a "vermin-infested cell" where prisoners are treated as "caged animals."
Schulte even acted as his own attorney for the recent trial and seemed to impress the judge, who was quoted as telling him, "depending on what happens here, you may have a future as a defense lawyer."
The entire court case is fascinating and wild to his former classmates and friends, myself included. None of us ever saw something like this coming, and most of us still can't believe the CIA ever hired him in the first place.
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