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A former CIA analyst from Vienna pleaded guilty Friday to leaking top-secret documents about Israel’s plans to strike Iranian defense systems and attempting to conceal his actions.
Asif William Rahman, 34, admitted using his security clearance to access, copy and share classified national defense information with people who were not authorized to receive it.
Prosecutors said Rahman accessed and printed two top-secret documents on Oct. 17, 2024, detailing a U.S. ally’s planned actions against a foreign adversary. He removed the documents, photographed them and transmitted the images to others. Copies bearing their classification markings appeared across multiple social media platforms by Oct. 18.
The countries’ names were redacted in court documents, but the leaked material concerned Israel’s preparations to attack Iran. The disclosure led Israel to delay its retaliation for Iran’s Oct. 1 missile attack, according to news reports. Israel ultimately struck multiple sites in Iran on Oct. 26.
Rahman had worked for the CIA since 2016. Prosecutors said he accessed about 17 secret or top-secret documents during the spring and fall of 2024, including the two documents related to the planned Israeli operation.
His unauthorized activity extended beyond that single leak, according to the Justice Department. Between spring 2024 and November 2024, Rahman repeatedly printed classified material and took it home. There, he reproduced and altered documents in an effort to obscure their origins before communicating top-secret information to multiple unauthorized people.
Authorities also accused Rahman of taking extensive steps to cover his tracks. After Oct. 17, he deleted or changed journal entries and other writing on his personal devices, then drafted entries intended to create a false account of his conduct.
He destroyed electronic devices, including a personal phone and an internet router used to transmit classified information and document photographs, and discarded the remains in public trash containers. Court documents also say he deleted 1.5 gigabytes of data from his CIA email account and a personal folder on his work computer.
Robert Wells, executive assistant director of the FBI’s national security branch, said Rahman had betrayed the country’s trust and violated his obligation to protect classified information.
A federal grand jury indicted Rahman on Nov. 7, 2024, on two counts of willfully retaining and transmitting national defense information. He was arrested Nov. 14 in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where he was working at the U.S. Embassy.
Rahman remained jailed while awaiting trial before entering his plea in U.S. District Court in Alexandria. His plea agreement requires him to avoid contact with foreign government agents and notify federal officials about any media contacts so intelligence-community representatives can monitor the information he discloses.
He is scheduled to be sentenced May 15 and faces up to 20 years in prison—10 years for each count.