A former CIA official pleaded guilty on Friday to leaking classified documents about Israel’s plans to strike Iran following the Islamic Republic’s missile attack on the Jewish state last fall.
Asif Rahman, who once worked overseas for the clandestine agency, admitted to violating the Espionage Act when he obtained and leaked two records from the Defense Department’s National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency on October 17. The records indicated Israel was planning to initiate an airstrike in response to Iran’s missile attack on October 1.
Enacted in 1917 during World War I, the Espionage Act bars anyone from acquiring defense-related information that could harm the U.S. or aid a foreign adversary.
Rahman leaked the documents on a pro-Iranian Telegram account called “Middle East Spectator,” which then transmitted them to other social media platforms. The leak was considered a serious breach of U.S. national security, and the FBI treated it as such in its investigation.
Rahman was arrested in November and charged with two counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information. He pleaded guilty to those two charges.
The 34-year-old man faces up to ten years in prison for both counts after his May 15 sentencing date, although it’s possible he could receive between five and six-and-a-half years behind bars per sentencing guidelines. Rahman could even receive a shorter sentence if he continues cooperating with federal officials, the Washington Post reported. He currently remains in custody.
“Mr. Rahman betrayed the trust of the American people by unlawfully sharing classified national defense information he swore an oath to protect,” said Matthew Olsen, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s National Security Division.
“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 worked for the CIA since 2016 and had top security clearance, which he used to access sensitive compartmented information.
Based at the U.S. embassy in Cambodia, the analyst removed and photographed the records before destroying evidence of his secretive actions. This is not the first time he had committed such an act.
Last spring, when he worked in Virginia, Rahman disclosed and printed five classified documents. And last fall, he leaked another ten documents in addition to the two records on Israel’s military plans regarding the Islamic Republic.
The leaked documents detailed U.S. intelligence on satellite images of an Israeli base that revealed a possible Israeli aerial campaign on Iran. The leak played a role in delaying Israel’s targeted airstrikes, which occurred the morning of October 26.