CIA employee pleads guilty to leaking Israeli plans to attack Iran

(Patria) - A CIA employee accused of leaking classified documents about Israeli plans to attack Iran pleaded guilty on Friday to charges of intentionally retaining and transmitting national defense information, the U.S. Department of Justice announced, Reuters reported.

By pleading guilty, Asif William Rahman, who had been working for the U.S. intelligence agency since 2016, admitted to unlawfully downloading, printing, and distributing classified information on multiple occasions, including several times during 2024. His sentencing is scheduled for May 15.

In the spring of 2024, he printed five documents marked secret and top secret from his work computer and took them home, according to court documents. He then duplicated, altered, and shared them with those who did not have the legal right to see them. To conceal his actions, he deleted activity from his electronic devices, returned the records to work, and had them shredded.

Another time in the fall of 2024, court documents state, he printed ten more top-secret documents, took them home, and shared them with others. He then, on October 17, 2024, printed two more documents related to plans by a U.S. ally to attack a foreign adversary, court documents state.

These documents, which included Israel's plans to attack Iran, later appeared online after being published by a pro-Iranian Telegram channel called "Middle East Spectator".

This case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Rahman (34) is from Vienna, Virginia, and was arrested in Cambodia, according to court records.