Ex-CIA engineer tells judge he’s locked up like an animal
NEW YORK — A former CIA software engineer charged with leaking government secrets to WikiLeaks says it’s cruel and unusual punishment that he’s awaiting trial in solitary confinement, housed in a vermin-infested cell of a jail unit where inmates are treated like “caged animals.”
Joshua Schulte, 32, has asked a Manhattan federal judge to force the federal Bureau of Prisons to improve conditions at the Metropolitan Correction Center, where he has been held for over two years under highly restrictive conditions usually reserved for terrorism defendants.
In court papers last week, Schulte maintained he is held in conditions “below that of impoverished persons living in third-world countries.”
“It is barbaric and inhumane to lock human beings into boxes for years and years — it is a punishment worse than death,” Tuesday’s court filing said.
A message seeking comment was sent to the Bureau of Prisons and the Department of Justice.
Last year, a jury deadlocked on espionage charges alleging that Schulte stole a massive trove of the agency’s hacking tools and gave it to the organization that publishes news leaks. He was convicted of lesser charges of contempt of court and making false statements.
He is scheduled for another trial on espionage charges in June in what was said to be the largest leak in CIA history involving classified information. Afterward, he faces a separate trial on child pornography charges. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
In his 20s,
Schulte, worked as a coder at the CIA’s headquarters in Langley, Virginia, where digital sleuths design computer code to spy on foreign adversaries.
The so-called Vault 7 leak published in 2017 by WikiLeaks revealed how the CIA hacked Apple and Android smartphones in overseas spying operations and efforts to turn internet-connected televisions into listening devices. After a yearlong probe, investigators blamed Schulte, who had already left the agency after falling out with colleagues and supervisors.
At trial, a prosecutor called the leaks “devastating to national security.” A defense lawyer said the materials could have been accessed and stolen by hundreds of people.
According to court papers, Schulte has not been outdoors in over two years under special administrative
measures designed to severely restrict an inmate’s communications and interactions with others.
Prosecutors say the measures are necessary after Schulte tried to leak more classified information using
a contraband cellphone that had been smuggled into the jail. They said he declared an “information war” and was “prepared to burn down the United States government.”
Schulte’s cell, the size of a parking space, is infested with rodents, droppings, cockroaches and mold and there is no heating, air conditioning or functioning plumbing, the court papers said.
Bright lights are on nonstop, he isn’t allowed outside recreation and his access to commissary and visitation is severely restricted, while his access to books or legal materials is banned or severely limited, along with visits to dentists or doctors, despite heart-related issues, Schulte maintained.
In his prison unit, silverware and cups are banned so “inmates are forced to eat and drink with their hands like the caged animals that they are,” the filing said.
Schulte said he was asking for intervention because he had exhausted opportunities to protest his conditions to prison authorities, who he says make it nearly impossible to lodge complaints.