Ex-CIA Employee Blamed for WikiLeaks' 'Vault 7' Suffers Inhumane Treatment and Denied Access to Lawyer

Those who have inside-information on questionable or nefarious government activities are heroes to many of us. But they're seen as enemies to the states they expose the dirty little secrets of. Efforts to silence whistleblowers are a constant risk that many have to endure as they try to shed light on the darkness.

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The U.S. government goes after people who leak information pretty hard, like they did with Bradly/Chelsea Manning and Edward Snowden. Joshua Schulte is another former government employee who is being silenced for his alleged leaking of documents. He used to work for the CIA, and is accused of leaking the Vault 7 files to WikiLeaks in 2017, which contained over 8,000 documents from the CIA's Center for Cyber Intelligence.

The first batch of documents was called "Year Zero" and contains the "CIA’s global covert hacking program, its malware arsenal and dozens of ‘zero day’ weaponized exploits against a wide range of U.S. and European company products, include Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android and Microsoft’s Windows and even Samsung TVs, which are turned into covert microphones".

Schulte has been charged with 13 offenses on June 18, 2018, which included a violation of the Espionage Act for allegedly stealing classified CIA documents, and child pornography. The child pornography charge is likely made up to try to discredit him and suffer from abuses in prison (as is known to be a dirty tactic used by the government). He says he's also being mistreated in his prison pre-trial detention, as the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York has put him in solitary confinement which has prevented him from getting into contact with his lawyer and work on his defense.

Schulte wrote a handwritten letter to Judge Paul Crotty, which was then filed on October 29, but later removed. In it he states:

"I am writing to you because I have been unable to contact my attorney, review my discovery, or even assist on my case in any capacity for the entire month of October. This is outrageous and clearly unconstitutional so I write to you for relief."

On October 1, prison guards called him for a supposed "legal visit", but that was a ruse. Instead, he was placed in "the box" (solitary confinement) while he was allegedly being investigated for something. No details were provided as to what he was being investigated for. It looks like it was all just an effort to silence him by removing his ability to speak to his lawyer and mount a case for defense.

Schulte made requests to access legal work such as discovery material for his case, and to consult with his attorney, but these requests were denied. Describing his days in the hole, Schulte's days are filled with "nothing but attempted meditation. My fellow slaves constantly scream, pound, and claw at the cages attempting to get attention for basic needs to be fulfilled. I count myself lucky to be able to eat."

"I have witnessed men dragged from their cages and beaten and maced. An officer even uncuffed an inmate and told him to fight him away from the camera. Abuse runs rampant with few cameras and no monitoring, as there is no oversight of the Bureau of Prisons."

The conditions of his detention are horrendous, with "shit-filled showers, where you leave dirtier than when you entered; the flooding of the tiers and cages with ice-cold water; the constant blast of cold air as we are exposed to extreme cold without blankets or long-sleeve shirts; the uncontrollable lights that are always on as we are sleep deprived; the denial of books, radios, notebooks, and legal work as we are forced to do literally nothing as they torture us in our cages."

These are notoriously known conditions for the Metropolitan Correctional Center, as it tries to degrade people who have yet to be convicted of a crime by subjecting them to brutal conditions. Solitary confinement cells are absent of natural light and fresh air as prisoners are confined there for 24-24 hours each day. They get limited contact with visitors, or are completely denied any contact whatsoever.

The con-job by the prison system and government was done just when Schulte was trying to secure bail with his lawyer. He describes the corrupt conspiracy to keep him from possibly speaking about sensitive material at his trial, asking the judge to review his case:

"My suspicion is the government created some new fictitious ‘crime’ or ‘violation’ to obstruct justice and sabotage our response."

Schulte argued in June that he could prove his innocence in a 137- page bail letter he wrote to the judge. Schulte said 20 people or more had the same access to the document as he did. The child pornography comes from the private data for one of his clients, Schulte said.

"It should be clear that the FBI rushed, with reckless disregard for the truth, to meet an arbitrary, artificial, and unrealistic deadline one week after Vault 7 was posted."

"This is the story of a botched investigation and the search for a scapegoat to conceal government incompetence. Alas, there is no child pornography case. There is no national security case. There is just an innocent man who served his country and was wrongfully punished for reporting issues to his management."

Whistleblowers could bring to light more dark dirt in their trial. The case of Reality Winner shows how they want to prevent information from getting out. She was held in a Georgia county jail (of all places )for over a year until she broke and accepted a plea agreement to be charged with the Espionage Act for dsiclosing an NSA report on the alleged Russian hacking of the 2016 presidential election.

Alleged leakers are treat with so much contempt by the government, whether they are actually guilt or not. The want to set examples for people who dare to speak about deceptions and misdeeds carried out by governmental agencies. Putting them in solitary confinement, in shitty conditions, and denying them access to their lawyer or building their case, is how they hope to break the spirit of leakers who again try to fight against the tyranny of the state.

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References:

• Former CIA Employee Accused Of Leaking To WikiLeaks Describes Inhumane Treatment In Detention
• Joshua Schulte's letter
• Ex-CIA employee charged in leak disputes evidence

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