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posted by martyb on Friday October 21 2016, @12:49PM   Printer-friendly
from the information-wants-to-be-free? dept.

Federal prosecutors have charged former NSA contractor Harold T. Martin III under the Espionage Act:

Harold T. Martin III is expected to appear at a federal courthouse in Baltimore on Friday for a hearing to consider whether he should remain in U.S. custody, as prosecutors announced in a court filing that they plan to file Espionage Act charges against him.

The FBI is investigating whether Martin may have transferred six bankers boxes' worth of paper documents and 50,000 gigabytes of electronic materials to anyone else, according to documents filed Thursday. So far, investigators said they have not found any connection to a foreign power. Martin's public defenders, James Wyda and Deborah Boardman, have said that he presents no flight risk and that "there's no evidence he intended to betray his country."

Martin, a former Navy reservist, has been in federal custody since late August. That's when FBI agents executed search warrants at his suburban Maryland home, uncovering what they describe as "overwhelming" proof he mishandled classified information. Among the materials they found: the personal information of government employees and a top-secret document "regarding specific operational plans against a known enemy of the United States and its allies," according to the court filing.

The trove of information reportedly includes hacking tools that were recently offered for sale by a group that calls itself The Shadow Brokers.

12-page court filing: United States of America v. Harold T. Martin, III

Previously:
NSA Contractor Harold Martin III Arrested
Probe of Leaked U.S. NSA Hacking Tools Examines Operative's ‘Mistake’


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  • (Score: 2) by Username on Saturday October 22 2016, @08:06PM

    by Username (4557) on Saturday October 22 2016, @08:06PM (#417646)

    Well, I’d think, if were going with the TSA analogy, a guy carrying an ak-47 through the front door of an airport would be easy to spot. Pretty much begs the questions, what are you doing with that ak? Similar to a guy carrying banker boxes through NSA check points all the way out to his car.

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  • (Score: 1) by tftp on Saturday October 22 2016, @09:36PM

    by tftp (806) on Saturday October 22 2016, @09:36PM (#417663) Homepage

    Similar to a guy carrying banker boxes through NSA check points all the way out to his car.

    Pray tell, why would he need to steal the bankers boxes themselves? A pack of twelve costs only $40 [staples.com]. What he needed is papers that go inside. Papers are not magnetic; they are light and thin. How many sheets could the perpetrator carry under his jacket, day after day after day? Fifty? A hundred? It won't take long to fill those boxes, especially if he also left the building for lunch, and for doctor's appointments, and for other reasons...

    It's also possible that some of these papers he printed himself, at home, from a USB Flash disk or a DVD. Again, it would require a search to find those on him. He wouldn't be searched without a serious suspicion.