Former CIA Analyst Pleads Guilty of Publicly Disclosing Top Secret Data on Social Media

• A former CIA employee who had Top-Secret security clearance and access to Sensitive Compartmented Information admitted unauthorized disclosure.
• Classified National Defense details were publicly posted on several social media platforms.
• The individual took extensive measures to conceal his actions and mask his opinions on U.S. policy, destroying evidence.

A former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) analyst pleaded guilty to unlawfully retaining and transmitting classified National Defense Information (NDI), which was later shared publicly on social media platforms. 

The federal court plea stems from unauthorized disclosures of Top Secret information that compromised U.S. national security and foreign intelligence operations.  

Asif William Rahman, 34, of Vienna, Virginia, was a CIA employee since 2016 and had Top-Secret security clearance and access to Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI). He admitted to accessing, printing, and transmitting classified documents to unauthorized individuals. 

The two Top Secret documents, containing sensitive information about a U.S. foreign ally and its planned actions against a foreign adversary, were shared on October 17, 2024. By the following day, the documents—complete with classification markings—appeared on multiple social media platforms.  

According to court records, Rahman took extensive measures to conceal his actions. After October 17, 2024, he deleted and edited journal entries and personal notes to mask his opinions on U.S. policy. 

He also destroyed electronic devices, including his personal mobile phone and an internet router used to transmit the classified documents, discarding the debris in public trash receptacles to impede investigations.  

Rahman’s unauthorized activities stretched from spring 2024 through November 2024, during which he repeatedly accessed and removed classified documents, reproducing and altering them to conceal their source before disseminating the information to individuals not cleared to receive it.  

The investigation proceeded quickly after the documents were leaked publicly. Rahman was indicted by a grand jury on November 7, 2024, and the FBI arrested him at his workplace in Cambodia on November 12, 2024. He has been in federal custody since his arrest.  

Rahman pleaded guilty in federal court in Virginia to two counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information related to national defense.  

Rahman’s sentencing is set for May 15, 2025. While the maximum penalty is 10 years for both counts, the final sentence will be determined by the federal district court judge after reviewing U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutory factors. 

In December, U.S. Army soldier ‘Kiberphant0m’ was arrested for AT&T and Verizon extortion.