A National Security Agency (NSA) contractor Harold Thomas Martin III was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation back in August on charges of stealing confidential data of the intelligence organization.
The 51-year-old NSA contractor hails from Glen Burnie, Maryland and has been accused of stealing, removal and retention of classified government materials.
As per the Justice Department officials, Martin was able to pull off such a feat because he had top-secret national security clearance. Martin was arrested on August 27 after the police searched his residence, car and two storage shed and found information stored upon storage devices as well as on hard copy documents. A criminal complaint was then filed against him that read:
“A large percentage of the materials recovered from Martin’s residence and vehicle bore markings indicating that they were the property of the U.S. government and contained highly classified information.”
In the beginning, Martin denied stealing the data but after some time he stated that he had some idea about that “what he had done was wrong and that he should not have done it because he knew it was unauthorized,” reports NewYork Times.
Milton was a Booz Allen Hamilton contractor who was working on behalf of the NSA. The United States Attorney in Maryland issued a press release this Wednesday in which it was revealed that Martin was charged two days later after his arrest. Currently, we have no specific information about what sort of documents were stolen by Martin. According to Martin’s lawyer:
“We have not seen any evidence. But what we know is that Hal Martin loves his family and his country. There is no evidence that he intended to betray his country.”
This is huge. Did the FBI secretly arrest the person behind the reports NSA sat on huge flaws in US products? https://t.co/otgOwB5efm
— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) October 5, 2016
The criminal complaint filed against Martin stated that the accused “voluntary agreed to be interviewed” by the FBI. The criminal complaint, which was unsealed on Wednesday, identified that Martin knew that “he did not have the authorization to retain the materials at his residence or in his vehicle.”
In case the accused is found guilty he could be spending over a decade in jail.
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