CIA Leaker of Israel Intel Pleads Guilty Days Before Trump Takes Office

A CIA analyst who held a top-secret security clearance pleaded guilty Friday to leaking documents about Israel’s preparations for striking Iran.

The plea came days before the inauguration of Donald Trump, who could have thrown a wrench into the Department of Justice’s prosecution.

The leaks, which surfaced on a pro-Iranian social media account, led the Israelis to delay an October strike on Iran that ultimately happened days later, according to prosecutors’ prior statements in court.

The move to strike a plea deal will take decisions over Rahman’s fate away from Trump appointees.

Asif William Rahman pleaded guilty to two Espionage Act violations under a plea agreement that leaves sentencing up to U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles, a judge appointed by President Joe Biden.

Giles has scheduled a May 15 sentencing hearing for Rahman. Federal prosecutors agreed with Rahman’s defense lawyers that federal guidelines would call for between five and seven years in prison, but Giles could depart upward or downward from those guidelines.

The move to strike a plea deal will essentially take decisions over Rahman’s fate away from forthcoming Trump appointees, including the next federal prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia. U.S. Attorney Jessica Aber, who currently holds the role, told the Washington Post this week that she is resigning with the change of administration, meaning Trump will appoint her replacement.

The leaks alarmed Israeli officials and Trump, who lashed out about it on social media and identified the wrong government department as their source.

“Israel has been seriously damaged and compromised by this,” Trump said. “Wartime strategy and data. Probably came from Defense Department. MUST FIND THE LEAKER!”

Prosecutors previously accused Rahman of leaking two documents about U.S. analyses of satellite photos of Israeli military preparations for launching a strike at Iran. At the time of the alleged leak, the two countries were locked in rising tensions over Israel’s war in Gaza.

Rahman’s leaks began months earlier, however, according to a new timeline in a document accompanying his plea deal.

In the document, Rahman acknowledged leaking five secret or top-secret documents in the spring of 2024 to “multiple” individuals who are not named in the court record. Further leaks of 10 documents, again to “multiple individuals,” followed in fall 2024, Rahman acknowledged.

The court document spells out how Rahman took steps to cover his tracks including shredding documents, destroying a phone and router, and deleting journal entries.

The court records do not dwell on Rahman’s motivations. Prosecutors have said before in court, however, that he appears to have acted for “ideological” reasons.

There was little warning before Friday’s hearing, which was originally set as a pretrial conference, that Rahman was about to plead guilty.

The Cincinnati native and Yale University graduate had served in the CIA since 2016, before his arrest in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, where he was posted to the U.S. Embassy.

There was little warning before Friday that Rahman was about to plead guilty.

Giles, the judge, dealt Rahman’s defense team a blow in December when she ordered him held until trial. After an appeals court upheld her decision, Rahman faced the possibility of waiting months or years to learn his fate.

A lawyer for Rahman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Mr. Rahman betrayed the trust of the American people by unlawfully sharing classified national defense information he swore an oath to protect,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, in a statement.

“Today’s guilty plea demonstrates that the Justice Department will spare no effort to swiftly find and aggressively prosecute those who harm the United States by illegally disclosing our national security secrets.”