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By Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Thread Song
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SDNY COURTHOUSE, July 7 – When jury selection was completed for the retrial of accused CIA Vault 7 leaker Joshua Schulte, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Jesse M. Furman told the jurors, Do not read or say anything about the case. Inner City Press was there, and live tweeted here.

Judge Furman: I'm going to announce the selected jurors. [He reads out 16 names. Inner City Press took fast notes - on on Patreon here]

Inner City Press has filed opposing the sealing of the courtroom for CIA witnesses, and once the witnesses begin anticipates making other filings.

The June 14, 2022 opening arguments, as live tweeted by Inner City Press, are here.

On June 15, Schulte in his own defense engaged in his first cross examination, of FBI Agent Evanchec. Inner City Press live tweeted it here.

On June 16, Schulte completed his cross of Evanchec - then the US put on CIA supervisor Anthony Leonis in a (mostly) sealed courtroom, Inner City Press which seeks to unseal was there then live tweeted here.

On June 17, Leonis finished his direct and was cross examined by Schulte, with a deadline to finish before the end of the trial day. Inner City Press live tweeted it here.

On June 21, MITRE's (and now Microsoft's) Patrick Leedom did direct and then some cross examination by Schulte. Inner City Press live tweeted here.

On June 24 the trial resumed and Inner City Press live tweeted here.

On June 27, FBI agent Michael Berger was cross examined, thread here.

On June 28, Day 8, the courtroom went sealed again, and without at least one of the feeds that was supposed to exist. Inside, "Jeremy Weber" was being cross-examined by Schulte. At day's end Schulte told Judge Furman he has ten more pages of questions for Weber, after finishing with 50 pages.  The next witness, too, is sealed. But Inner City Press is staying on the case, and the background (see a launch of sorts, here).

On June 29, Schulte cross examined Weber at the opening, and waited for cooperator Carlos, about use of cell phone(s) in MCC, at the end. Inner City Press live tweeted, here.

On June 30, Schulte cross examined Betances, then FBI Special Agent Schlessinger, thread here

On July 6, both sides rested after questions, which Inner City Press live tweeted here and below. Inner City Press is covering the trial(s) and writing a book(let) about it 

On July 7, the closing arguments, which Inner City Press live tweeted here:

OK- US v Josh Schulte CIA Wikileaks Vault7 closing arguments today (Day 12 of trial); yesterday it emerged DOJ thinks a journalist can be prosecuting for reporting what Schulte might say- Inner City Press is covering the case(s)

Judge Furman: Mr. Schulte, are you ready?

Schulte: I just need to be taken into the holding cell to change my shirt. Judge Furman: Fine. And please pull your mask up over your nose.

Jury entering! Judge Furman: Good morning, jurors. Yesterday's witness "Dave" is also "Dave C." And I have approved redactions to the transcript. Now, the closing arguments.

AUSA Lockard: On April 20, 2016, Joshua Schulte stole the CIA's cyber tools. He turned on the US.... Schulte had kept a secret cryptographic pass key and he tunneled through to that backup of all cyber tools. He stole them. And he transferred them to Wikileaks, knowing they would publish them. He bought computer equipment and did research.

 AUSA: Schulte wiped his home computers and preserved only the data he wanted to keep. And on March 7, 2017, Wikileaks began releasing that data, as Vault 7 and Vault 8. It was devastating to the US. Overnight, cyber tools had to be shelves and re-written.

 AUSA: This was all the work of Joshua Adam Schulte. You have seen devastating evidence uncovering the defendant's crimes. You've seen the computer equivalent of security camera footage. He deleted that video. When Wikileaks published, Schulte was IDed as suspect

 AUSA: While at the CIA Schulte violated security protocols and filed false complaints. He left the CIA angry and disgruntled. So the FBI looked into him. During that March 15, 2017 interview, the defendant lied. He falsely denied leaking.

AUSA: Schulte was arrested and put into the MCC jail. He had phones smuggled in and set up social media accounts. He sent out sensitive information. He drafted a series of tweets with sensitive info and made arrangement to send out. But the phones were seized.

 AUSA Michael Lockard: It was ego. And it was anger. Schulte would like to think of himself as a bad ass. But he was a nuclear bomb. He was called the Nuclear Option. He wanted revenge. He damaged the US' national security.

AUSA Lockard: DEVLAN was limited to 200 people in the CIA. As Anthony Leonis described, it contains the CIA's most sensitive cyber tools. It was closed and did not access the Internet. The information was "closely held" because of these protections.

AUSA: The "how" of what Schulte did can be complicated. There are reversions, deletions. But what he did is not complicated. The single purpose was to get access to the backup files and copy them. After April 16 [2016] he was not authorized to access the backups

 AUSA: Schulte asked Leonis if he could keep his access. And he was told no. Politely, but no. Then Schulte changed his own project administrator status. OSB found out about this. Jeremy Weber raised the alarm: "We have a situation."

AUSA: It's like a bank manager finding that an employee was taking $20 bills from the cash drawer - and has a key to the vault. So they tried to take Schulte's keys away. Two IT guys came in and changed the passwords and SSH keys. Weber was there to test it.

 AUSA: So as of April 18 Schulte knew he was not an administrator of any of the Atlassian products. He lied that his keys had been destroyed. And he Googled around about access to Confluence and Stash.

 AUSA: If you'll permit me to paraphrase a little, Schulte was told, You are not in OSB anymore, keep your hands off OSB things. But he continued. He is, by analogy, figuring out where are the security cameras and how can I avoid them.

AUSA: I expect when Mr. Schulte speaks you'll hear -- Schulte: Objection - that's what rebuttal is for. Judge Furman: Overruled. AUSA: He'll say there's no forensic evidence. But the files were copied and they were copied while Schulte had the ability to do it

AUSA Lockard: The fact there were is no footage inside the vault is not evidence that he did not go in there. Quite the opposite. He deleted the footage. He deleted log files on the OSB server with the RM Linux command

AUSA: Schulte has suggested someone else was using his computer. But at the time of the transfer, he was in his work station sending chats and emails. Schulte was having trouble: his Brutal Kangaroo was failing, a tool was called Drifting Deadline

AUSA: As the complaints about Drifting Deadline mount, so do Schulte's problems with his co-worker Amol. He files a complaint and gets more isolated from his colleagues. He gets relocated. His frustrations are mounting. In April 2016 Schulte exploded.

AUSA: Once Wikileaks published Vault 7, our adversaries became very interested. It was devastating. Schulte was arrested and put in prison at the MCC. Don't consider that he was in prison, only what he did there. His journals says, I'll close embassies

AUSA: How would he close embassies and "end occupations"? His leverage is the classified information he has. He says he will set up a WordPress and stage his information war. Mr. Betances told you Schulte spoke about this information war, then stop.

AUSA: Schulte set up a Twitter account and wrote down the password. Then he started talking about Bartender. It was a cyber tool with a human who would get it on the target. Weber invited Schulte into it. In one draft, Schulte cites the vendor

 AUSA: Let's talk about the grand jury subpoena Schulte got at Pershing Square. When he met the FBI they told him they were investigating the Vault 7 leak. He got a subpoena for his phone and testimony. So his false statements to the FBI were meant for the jury

 AUSA: You'll be asked to find if this National Defense Information was "closely held." Schulte will say it was already public.  Even if so, because he stole it and gave it to Wikileaks. It could still be closely held if US tried to protect it.

 AUSA: I'm about to sit down. I'll ask you to do three things: pay attention, I think you have. Follow the judge's instructions on the law. And use your common sense. If you do, you'll find Schulte guilty of all charges. Thank you. [Schulte in 30. Watch this feed]

OK - break and strategizing over - Jury entering!

Judge Furman: Mr. Schulte, you may proceed.

Schulte: Mr. Lockard is very worried about the lack of evidence. There was no forensic artifact of a transmission to Wikileaks. No communications with Wikileaks

 Schulte: They have investigated me for five years. And what? They cannot answer basic questions. They decided right away that it was me. On March 7, 2017 CIA documents showed up on Wikileaks. But the FBI said the theft was a full year earlier.

Schulte: They came to my apartment and seized even my Xbox. They found no government information. The spite motive is pure fantasy. I have devoted my whole life to service. I started as an intern at the NSA. I was an award winning developer.

 Schulte: Frank Stedman called me "casually annoyed." Sean Roche called me calm. You saw four hour interviews of me - my demeanor was laid back. Play them again in deliberations. I may be litigious. I thought Ed Snowden was a traitor who should be executed.

 Schulte: They told you I was nicknamed nuclear option. It had nothing to do with escalation. It is the opposite: the absence of emotion and speaking bluntly. I filed a complaint with security. Amol denied then admitted the allegations. An investigation kicked off.

 Schulte: At that time, there were the Democratic Party emails, Guccifer 2.0, the Shadowbrokers... The diplomatic passport? I just forgot it, and so did they.

Schulte: I found I did not even have permission anymore to Brutal Kangaroo. I write to ten people. Leonis tells me I should have surmised he wanted me to pull out the sub component Shattered Assurance. It makes no sense. I got a letter of warning. I complain.

 Schulte: I complain then find a job here in New York and move here. Why would have made myself a suspect, and painted a target on my back. It makes no sense. I engaged with EEO - a person who leaked in April 2016 would not do that.

Schulte: Mr. Leedom ignored all the weaknesses of DEVLAN. He's not an expert but an advocate. There is testimony that the Alta Backups were not locked down. The potential suspect list is everyone who could sign in to DEVLAN, at least 200 people.

Schulte: Mr. Leedom says he had all my devices - but none of them were connected during the reversion period. Nothing. What am I copying the files to without a device connected to my computer? They do not have a theory.

Schulte: The government has no clue. That requires acquittal. The equivalent of 1000 hours of Netflix, in 75 minutes - is that possible? Leedom did not even have slide about it. This failure establishes reasonable doubt.

 Schulte: According to the badge records, I tried to badge into the vault at 5:45 pm, from the bathroom. At 5:42 and 5:43 I'm in the bathroom. I wouldn't even be at my computer. I could not have copied the backup files.

 Schulte: The government's own forensic experts have proven my innocence. The government cannot establish the steps necessary to commit this crime. I was in the bathroom during the access of the backups.

 Schulte: How did I download from the bathroom? And how did I get it out? There are armed guards. You have to badge in and badge out. They talk about Google searches. But I am a computer geek.

 Judge Furman: This is not evidence.

Schulte: There is nothing unique about my activities. Mr. Berger is with the FBI. It's clear what team he is on. He zooms in and ignores the big picture. Look at my entire Amazon purchase history. Ask yourself, isn't their bias skewing their investigation?

Schulte: Mr. Berger tries to insinuate I must have visited the Wikileaks site because I downloaded TAILs. He tries to make much of a virtual machine. My purchases are consistent with my hobbies and habits.

Schulte: Brutal Kangaroo was a project I was working on at this time. There was nothing improper about having a folder named Brutal Kangaroo in my house. I was up late playing the League of Legends. I often stayed up late playing games. This is not uncommon.

Schulte: DEVLAN has no logs. Verizon gave them the logs of my home connection, and they gave them to me - and they established no connections to Wikileaks, much less the transfer of 200 gigabytes. They did not even seek to introduce it. Reasonable doubt.

Schulte: Do you think the CIA tools I write leaves finger prints like this? If it did, I wouldn't have a job for long. Mr. Leedom admitted that malware can "time stump" files. I was an expert in Linux administration. I could have done it. But I didn't.

 Schulte: Why would I leave a red flag like this? I wouldn't. When it suits them, they want you to believe I am an expert who can hide his tracks. Then they want you to believe I am a bungler. Which one is it? Because you can't be both.

 Schulte: They have never proven this information went directly from the CIA to Wikileaks. And why would Wikileaks, a news organization, wait a full year? We'll have to wait and see what AUSA Denton says in rebuttal.

 Schulte: You might ask, If it wasn't you, who was it? It is not my job to solve this crime. We are not the FBI. Look at the Wikileaks Task Force Report. They admit DEVLAN had no safeguards, that passwords were shared.

Schulte: The US cannot know who did it. They have not touched on foreign actors. It's like your home. If 100s of people have the key and your doors is open, anyone can come in. That's the CIA

 Schulte: They focus on my writings, as if they could replace their need for proof. It's like a sacrifice bunt in baseball - they just try to move it forward. They try to dirty me up. I'm not accused just of phones in MCC - but of transmitting NDI.

 Schulte: Cell phones were everywhere at the MCC. But when I have one, they send 50 FBI agents. They are terrified - I have CIA and NSA information in my head. I could still do it. If I wanted to harm the US, I would do it. But in the videos of Betances, nothing

 Schulte: What was I doing in the MCC? Drafting articles attacking the criminal justice system. I viewed it as an egregious violation, like all inmates do. I reached out. I wanted to prove my innocence. I was coming apart. Prison is not a nice place

 Schulte: These prison writings were my hallucination. Look at the titles: Guilty Until Proven Wealthy. Does this sound like a battle plan? My plan was to prove I am innocent. Yes, I use a cell phone to try to get my story out to anyone who will listen.

 Schulte: Did I use a cell phone? Yes. But that's not what I'm charged with. They charge NDI, to get you to believe I'm guilty of the Wikileaks conduct. Read it, Malware of the Mind - I'm talking about the justice system, how a non expert is so trusted.

Schulte: Look at my titles: tyranny - when I saw Information War - I write, I will open a WordPress account. My account is called Presumption of Innocence. You think anyone cares what I think about this? They don't. I am not declaring war on America

Schulte: Mr. Betances, like me, is in prison. Of course he tell prosecutors he heard me say Wikileaks and Russia. They want him to say that. He wants to get out to his family.

 Schulte: You'll have a helpful chart to decide my fate. If you find they haven't proven an element, you move on. You can find me not-guilty quickly. Since I did not take the CIA backup, I could not possess them. You can easily move on.

 Schulte: They are claiming I intended to leak NDI by writing in my notebooks, labeled "attorney client privilege." No one testified this was classified or NDI. What about the attempt? Hannah Sotnik testified she gave it to my attorney. They focus only on page 84

 Schulte: This is not National Defense Information -- Judge Furman: Ladies and gentlemen, it's my legal instructions which control. Go ahead. Schulte: This is a substitution that the judge approved for the transcript.

 Schulte: The Bartender info was released on Wikileaks long before I wrote about it in my notebooks. I never even put the draft tweet in my Buffer account. They claim they swept in and stopped me from posting. But the US publicly disclosed it at trial

 Schulte: If it was so confidential, why did they reveal it in this trial?

AUSA: Objection!

Judge Furman: Jurors, the government is not on trial here. Schulte: They did not call any classification  expert. Judge Furman: Jurors, it's whether it was NDI at the time.

Schulte: I did not break in - I used my key. And reversion is like closing without savings. It is like an oil change. It is not theft. There was no damage to the Confluence VM.

 Schulte: I'm going sit down now. My work is almost done. Your work is about to being. Ask yourself, do I trust these witnesses. If I were your relative or your friend, would this be enough evidence. It's not your job to fill their gaps. Schulte: This is my last chance to speak. You will have a chance to speak. All you have to say, What would Mr. Schulte say? You know all of it. My life is in your hands. I am convinced you will reach the verdict, I am innocent. Thank you.

 Judge Furman: Ladies and gentlemen, we'll have another break before the rebuttal. All rise - jury exits. Judge Furman: Mr. Schulte, that was very impressively done. Depending on what happens here you may have a future as a defense lawyer. [Break of 30- story soon]

 They're back - jury entering!

Judge Furman: Mr. Denton, you may proceed.

AUSA Denton: I get the last word. What Mr. Schulte said is similar to what he tried to get witnesses to say during the trial. But here is the chart of Mr. Leedom.

 AUSA Denton: The reversion gave him back administrative access to the virtual machine. It's how he got to the Alta backups. Why was he deleting the log files? He was hiding what he did.

AUSA Denton: Mr. Schulte is trying to argue, I am too smart to have tried to steal it that way. It's obvious it was copied - it showed up on Wikileaks. Schulte says he couldn't have stolen before he was in the bathroom. But the door was steps away.

AUSA Denton: You know he stole it because he admits he did the reversion and what other reasons is there?

Schulte: Objection! Judge Furman: Overruled.

AUSA: Of the things he deleted, there are things we can't show. But his defense has been years in the making

AUSA: Schulte was ranting about Donald Trump and the FBI. He left up his Redress of Grievances. He can criticize the criminal justice system. But he talked about Bartender being in Wikileaks. That's not what matters - no one associated Bartender with that tool.

 AUSA Denton: I am fond of John Adams' phrase, Facts are stubborn things. And they are stubborn here. Mr. Schulte took the back-up and sent it to Wikileaks. He is guilty. Thank you. Judge Furman: We'll call it a day there and do the legal instructions tomorrow.

Judge Furman: Keep an open mind. Tomorrow after my instructions when you deliberate, there will be a lunch order form.  Jury leaves. Judge Furman: I think we have all the exhibits except the WordPress returns and one of the notebooks

 Judge Furman: Mr. Schulte, do you control your defense? Schulte: Yes. Can we get the final jury charge copy? Judge Furman: Yes. See you tomorrow.

The jury charge and deliberations are next and this coverage will continue.

 Here's from Judge Furman June 13 Order: "as discussed on the record at the classified hearing held  on June 8, 2022, the Court concludes that the particular statement Defendant seeks to admit is  admissible. The Court further concludes that the information should likely be admitted as a  stipulation, which would give Defendant “substantially the same ability to make his defense as  would disclosure of ” a portion of the document itself, pursuant to CIPA Section 6(c). See 18.  U.S.C. app. 3 § 6(c). Accordingly, the parties shall propose an agreed upon stipulation or  competing stipulations for the Court’s approval no later than June 17, 2022."

Previously, in the conclusion of the month long trial of accused CIA leaker Joshua Schulte, on the morning of March 9, 2020 the jury returned guilty verdicts on Counts 8 and 10, with mistrial granted on all other counts. U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York Judge Paul A. Crotty set March 26 for the next date. 

Then it was moved to April 22 (then May 18). March 9 thread here. Song here.

  On November 9, 2021, a status conference was held before Judge Jesse M. Furman to whom the case was reassigned. Inner City Press live tweeted it here - the upshot was a May 23, 2022 trial date was set. Vlog here.

 That has since been moved to June, with the admonition that it will not be further moved. Schulte has raised issues of how his right to represent himself is possible with law library, turned off computers and printer paper issues in the MDC.

  This was was one of the issues at a May 18 pre-trial conference held on Courtroom 15A of 500 Pearl Street, where Judge Furman has been overseeing a drug trial Inner City Press is also covering, along with other criminal and civil trials. It stepped out - then found that a window had been opened to oppose courtroom sealing. It wrote in to Judge Furman, see below and The New Yorker of June 16: "Matthew Russell Lee, an independent journalist who covered the first trial, recently filed an objection to the government’s motion to seal the courtroom during testimony from C.I.A. officers, but it appears that that condition will again apply."

On June 8 there was a final pre-trial conference, also in courtroom 15A; Inner City Press live tweeted:

OK- at #CIA #Vault7 leak case of US v. Schulte, Inner City Press which has opposed sealing is here, with half dozen gov't reps.

Now US wants to quash subpoena on a witness.

Judge: I would like to avoid sidebars... esp due to Mr Schulte's US Marshals issue. [He has 2 Marshals sitting behind him]

 AUSA: When we move to sealed witnesses... Judge: We'll have the jury leave too, to make no one is in the courtroom who shouldn't be. Openings at earliest Tuesday [and probably later]. Four alternates.

 Judge: 10 peremptories for the defense.  6 for the US. I'll tell jurors Mr Schulte is charged with 9 crimes [incl with] Wikileaks. 

Schulte: Stress that I am presumed innocent.

 Judge: I intend to ask jurors if they are vaccinated and boosted.

AUSA: We want our experts and former case agent in the court during other witnesses' testimony. Judge: Experts yes, case agent no.

Judge: Witnesses cannot read transcripts or media. A/V dry run, you can do it when in the courtroom, Mr Schulte.

Schulte: I'll be here til 4 on my Friday SCIF day.

 Judge: We'll take up the rest in our classified setting. Adjourned.

 Then the prosecutors and Marshals stood around Schulte as he tried to charge his laptop. The continued session would be elsewhere in the courthouse, sealed.

 Back on April 13, 2022, Judge Furman held a conference with Schulte present. Inner City Press live tweeted it here....

Previously, Judge Crotty held another proceeding with Schulte and his stand-by counsel. Schulte was moved to the MDC: "JOSHUA ADAM SCHULTE Register Number: 79471-054 Age:     33 Race:     White Sex:     Male Located at: Brooklyn MDC Release Date: UNKNOWN." [And see its Oct 15 MCC video here]

  On March 2, 2021 were the closing arguments [in the first trial], which Inner City Press tweeted, thread here

 More on Patreon here.

See Inner City Press filing into the docket on Big Cases Bot, here. Watch this site. The case is US v. Schulte, 17-cr-548 (Furman).

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