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US court sentences WikiLeaks whistleblower Schulte to 40 years in prison

The prosecution claimde that the former CIA employee was responsible for "the most damaging disclosures of classified information in American history"

NEW YORK, February 2. /TASS/. A court in New York sentenced former CIA software engineer Joshua Schulte to 40 years in prison over the largest leak of classified information known as Vault 7, WikiLeaks said.

"Alleged WikiLeaks Vault 7 whistleblower Joshua Schulte given a 40 year sentence in a New York federal court today," the organization wrote on the X social network, formerly known as Twitter.

"We will likely never know the full extent of the damage, but I have no doubt it was massive," Associated Press quoted Judge Jesse Furman as saying.

The prosecution requested a life sentence for Schulte, claiming that the former CIA employee was responsible for "the most damaging disclosures of classified information in American history." The defendant argued that "this is not justice the government seeks, but vengeance."

Vault 7 is a codename for a series of documents that WikiLeaks began to publish in 2017. They included almost 10,000 documents and files, which revealed CIA electronic surveillance technologies.

WikiLeaks reported that, according to its Vault7 data dump, the CIA had been developing malicious software, making it possible to spy on people through their mobile phones and handheld devices along with technologies which help get access to smartphones all over the world. The agency’s hacking toolbox makes it possible to intercept and read audio traffic and e-mails, including in the popular instant messengers WhatsApp and Telegram. In addition to that, the CIA and the British counterintelligence unlocked a way that allows it to use the Samsung Smart TV as a listening device.

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