U.S. says ex-NSA contractor stole secrets for 20 years
Filing: Suspect took enough to fill 200 computer laptops.
Harold T. Martin III may also face espionage charges in what prosecutors say was theft of 200 laptops’ worth of classified data.
A former National Security Agency contractor’s theft of top secret government information was “breathtaking in its longevity and scale,” federal prosecutors said in a court filing Thursday aimed at keeping the man locked up as the case moves forward.
They said Harold T. Martin III took enough classified material to fill roughly 200 laptop computers.
The Justice Department also said it anticipated bring- ing additional counts against Martin, including charges under the Espionage Act, which would expose him to far harsher penalties if convicted. It described the evidence against him as “overwhelming” and said Martin admitted to investigators that he was illicitly storing classified materials.
The court papers offered new details about the enormous volume of information prosecutors believe Martin stole and revealed the Justice Department’s concern that Martin is or could be in contact with a foreign government. Prosecutors said Martin has had online communication in Russian and — raising the specter of a situation akin to previous NSA leaker Edward Snowden — said that if Martin were freed he “could seek refuge with a foreign government will- ing to shield him from facing justice.”
“Given the nature of his offenses and knowledge of national secrets, he presents tremendous value to any for- eign power that may wish to shelter him within or outside of the United States,” prosecutors said.
A detention hearing is scheduled for this afternoon in Baltimore.
Martin’s attorneys said he never intended to betray his country and does not pose a danger or flight risk. They said Martin, a former lieutenant in the U.S. Navy, does not have a valid pass- port and dismissed as “fan- tastical scenarios” concerns that he might flee.
Martin was arrested at his Maryland home in August around the same time as federal officials acknowledged an investigation into a cyber- leak of purported hacking tools used by the NSA.
Prosecutors said agents who searched Martin’s home and car seized dozens of computers and electronic devices, then found clas- sified government materi- als from 1996 to 2016 and some 50 terabytes of infor- mation — or enough to fill 200 laptops. One document marked as “Top Secret/Sen- sitive Compartmented Infor- mation” included “specific operational plans against a known enemy of the United States,” according to the court filing.
The information includes an email chain marked as “Top Secret” that appeared to have been printed from an official government account. On the back of the document, prosecutors said, were handwritten notes describing the NSA’s classified computer infrastructure. The notes, which include basic con- cepts about classified infor- mation, appear “intended for an audience outside of the Intelligence Community,” the government said.
Martin, a former contractor at Booz Allen Hamilton, had access to classified infor- mation since 1996. “The evidence is overwhelming that the defendant abused this trust and chose to repeat- edly violate his agreements, his oaths and the law_and to retain extremely sensitive government information to use however he wished,” prosecutors said.