A Northern Virginia man and former CIA analyst pleaded guilty on Friday to sharing top secret national defense information that was later publicly posted on social media.
Asif William Rahman, 34, of Vienna, was an employee of the CIA since 2016 and had a security clearance with access to sensitive compartmented information.
Rahman was indicted by a grand jury on Nov. 7, 2024, and was arrested by the FBI as he arrived to work on Nov. 12, 2024.
He has remained in custody since his arrest.
Rahman pleaded guilty to two counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information related to the national defense.
He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 15, 2025. He faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison for both counts in the plea agreement.
According to court documents, on Oct. 17, 2024, Rahman accessed and printed two documents containing national defense information regarding a U.S. foreign ally and its planned actions against a foreign adversary.
Rahman removed the documents, photographed them and transmitted them to individuals he knew were not entitled to receive them.
By Oct. 18, 2024, the documents appeared publicly on multiple social media platforms complete with the classification markings.
Rahman deleted and edited journal entries and written work product on his personal electronic devices to conceal his personal opinions on U.S. policy and drafted entries to construct a false narrative regarding his activity.
Rahman also destroyed multiple electronic devices, including a personal mobile device and an internet router he used to transmit classified information and photographs of classified documents, and discarded the destroyed devices in public trash receptacles in an effort to thwart potential investigations into him and his unlawful conduct.
Beginning in the spring of 2024 and continuing through November 2024, Rahman repeatedly accessed and printed classified national defense information including documents classified up to the top secret level, to take them to his residence. There, Rahman reproduced the documents and, while doing so, altered them in an effort to conceal their source and his activity.
Rahman communicated the top secret information that he learned in the course of his employment to multiple individuals he knew were not entitled to receive it.
The FBI Washington Field Office is investigating the case. Rahman pleaded guilty three months after illegally sharing the sensitive data.
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Crystal Graham
