Former CIA analyst sentenced to prison for leaking classified information

A former CIA analyst has been sentenced to three years in federal prison for transmitting classified national defense information, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Asif William Rahman, 34, of Vienna, Virginia, pleaded guilty in January to two counts of willful retention and transmission of national defense information. Rahman was arrested in November 2024 after an investigation found that he had shared top secret material with unauthorized individuals. The information was later posted publicly on social media.

According to court documents, Rahman had worked at the CIA since 2016 and held a Top Secret security clearance with access to Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI). On October 17, 2024, he accessed and printed two Top Secret documents related to a U.S. ally’s planned actions against a foreign adversary. He then photographed the documents and sent them to individuals not authorized to receive them. The documents appeared online the following day.

In the weeks that followed, Rahman accessed and printed additional classified documents, some at the highest classification levels, and continued sharing them with unauthorized individuals. He also attempted to delete files from his workstation after the initial disclosures.

Rahman was indicted on November 7 and taken into custody on November 12 as he arrived at work. He remained in detention since his arrest.

“The FBI will continue to investigate the unauthorized disclosure of classified material,” said Assistant Director Roman Rozhavsky of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division. “Clearance holders are expected to protect the information entrusted to them.”