WASHINGTON – A former U.S. National Security Agency contractor has agreedto plead guilty to stealing classified information, according to courtfilings on Wednesday, in what may have been the largest heist of U.S.government secrets in history.
Harold Martin is scheduled to plead guilty to one count of willfulretention of national defense information at a federal court in Baltimoreon Jan. 22, according to the filings.
Prosecutors said Martin, who was indicted last February, spent up to 20years stealing highly sensitive government material from the U.S.intelligence community related to national defense, collecting a trove ofsecrets he hoarded at his home in Glen Burnie, Maryland.
Authorities said they seized 50 terabytes of data from Martin’s home, whichofficials said could be the biggest theft of classified information in U.S.history.
The government has not said what, if anything, Martin did with the stolendata.
He faces up to 10 years in prison on the single count. Martin has notstruck a plea deal with prosecutors and could still be tried on theremaining 19 counts in the indictment, the court filings said.
A lawyer for Martin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The NSA has been hit by a series of damaging data breaches in recent years.
In December, former NSA employee Nghia Hoang Pho pleaded guilty toillegally taking classified information that an intelligence official saidwas later stolen from his home computer by Russian hackers.
Martin worked for Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corp when he was taken intocustody in August 2016.
Booz Allen also employed Edward Snowden, who leaked a trove of secret filesto news organizations in 2013 that exposed vast domestic and internationalsurveillance operations carried out by the NSA.ADVERTISEMENT
Martin was employed as a private contractor by at least seven companies,working for several government agencies beginning in 1993 after serving inthe U.S. Navy for four years, according to the indictment.
His positions, which involved work on highly classified projects involvinggovernment computer systems, gave him various security clearances thatroutinely provided him access to top-secret information, it said.
The indictment also alleged that Martin stole documents from U.S. CyberCommand, the CIA and the National Reconnaissance Office.