Thomas A. Drake
Thomas Andrews Drake is a former senior official of the US National Security Agency and a computer software expert. [1] [2][3][4][5]
He was an NSA contractor starting in 1991[1]. In August 2001 he went to work at the NSA's Signals Intelligence Directorate in Fort Meade, Maryland. [5] In 2002, he became a Technical Leader in the NSA's Directorate of Engineering. He worked on process improvement and efficiency at NSA. He held a Top Secret level security clearance. [5] In 2006 he began working as a teacher at the National Defense University in Washington[5]. He lost his security clearance in November 2007 and he resigned from the NSA in April 2008.[2]
In April 2010, he was indicted by a Baltimore, Maryland grand jury on charges of 10 counts, including Willful Retention of National Defense Information (5 counts), obstructing justice (1 count), and Making a False Statement (4 counts) [3][1][2]. These were all related to his alleged leaking of information to a reporter, and subsequent alleged attempts to cover up his links to that reporter. [5]. The indictment did not name the reporter, but the person was allegedly working at a 'national newspaper' and had written stories about NSA Signals Intelligence acitivities between 'on or about' Feb 27 2006 and 'on or about' Nov 28 2007. These reports allegedly contained classified information. [5][2].
The indictment began by alleging that Drake had release classified information to a congressional staffer, while the staffer was working, and after the staffer retired in 2002. It then alleged that in Nov 2005 the staffer asked Drake to speak with a reporter at a 'national newspaper'. Then it alleged that Drake set up an account with hushmail, sent hundreds of emails to the reporter, met the reporter, and acted as a source for the reporter's articles. [5] The obstruction charge is related to allegedly destroying and deleting documents while knowing the FBI was investigating leaks to the media, and that it was contemplating investigating leaks to the aforementioned reporter[5]. The false statements were allegedly made to the FBI, specifically regarding whether or not he had taken documents home, whether he had copy/pasted classified information, and other statements to the FBI during it's investigation.[3]
Offices involved in the indictment included the DOJ Public Integrity Section, DOJ Criminal Division, DOJ National Security Division, the FBI, and the NSA Office of Security & Counterintelligence. [3] Drake is being represented by James Wyda, a federal public defender. [4]
He is one of very few officials to have been charged with leaking in recent years.[1][4]
Notes
- ^ a b c d Former N.S.A. Official Is Charged in Leaks Case, Scott Shane, Apr 15 2010, New York Times, accessed 2010 4 20
- ^ a b c d Obama’s Justice Department indicts NSA whistleblower, Agence France-Presse, 2010 apr 15, via rawstory.com accessed 2010 Apr 20
- ^ a b c d Former NSA Senior Executive Charged with Illegally Retaining Classified Information, Obstructing Justice and Making False Statements, Justice News, United States Department of Justice, 2010 4 15, accessed 2010 4 20
- ^ a b c Former NSA official allegedly leaked material to media, Greg Miller, Spencer S. Hsu and Ellen Nakashima, (with Carol D. Leonnig, Howard Kurtz and staff researcher Julie Tate) 2010 Apr 16 , accessed 2010 4 20
- ^ a b c d e f g h United States v Thomas A Drake Criminal Indictment of Thomas A Drake, filed April 14, 2010, US District Court, District of Maryland, Northern Division. This is a PDF of the criminal indictment itself, provided via jdsupra.com, in an upload from Justia.com. Accessed 2010 4 20.
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