A former CIA analyst will spend the next three years in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to improperly sharing top secret national defense information.
Asif William Rahman, 34, of Vienna, was sentenced yesterday (Wednesday) to a total of 37 months in prison — down from the maximum possible sentence of 20 years.
On three occasions in 2024, Rahman took advantage of his top secret security clearance to copy at least 15 classified documents, according to the Department of Justice.
Rahman concealed the documents inside a backpack to remove them from the workplace before bringing the documents to his home. He then shared them with “multiple individuals he knew were not entitled to receive it.”
Though the specific content of each of the documents is not publicly known, a CIA colleague said in December that the dissemination of the documents “could be expected to cause […] exceptionally grave damage to the national security of the United States.”
At least two of the documents shared by Rahman later appeared on “multiple social media platforms,” prosecutors said.
Rahman, who attempted to edit images of the documents in order to conceal his involvement, later returned the documents to his workplace and shredded them.
“For months, this defendant betrayed the American people and the oaths he took upon entering his office by leaking some of our nation’s most closely held secrets,” Assistant Attorney General for National Security John Eisenberg said.
Rahman, who was indicted by a federal grand jury on Nov. 7, pleaded guilty to the two charges on Jan. 17.
