Lawyers defending former CIA engineer and accused WikiLeaks source Joshua Adam Schulte complained Thursday about an avalanche of evidence recently produced by federal prosecutors.
Public defenders representing Mr. Schulte against charges he leaked classified CIA material to the anti-secrecy website voiced concerns about being unprepared as his trial nears.
In a letter docketed in Manhattan federal court addressed to the presiding judge, Mr. Schulte’s lawyers indicated they have become inundated by thousands of pages of documents provided by prosecutors last week ahead of the leak trial starting February 3.
Defense lawyers received 1,801 pages of classified material and 5,618 pages of unclassified material from prosecutors on January 13, Edward S. Zas and Sabrina P. Shroff wrote U.S. District Judge Paul A. Crotty.
“While some of this has been produced to us before, it is still a very large amount of new information for the client and his counsel to process,” they wrote. “The volume was overwhelming.”
Defense lawyers expressed concerns about the amount of material with the court on January 17, and two days later they received an additional 5,313 pages of classified discovery, their letter said.
“The volume of these productions is interfering with our trial preparation,” the lawyers wrote, adding that only one of Mr. Schutle’s lawyers is likely to have read the entirety of the material by the time his trial is scheduled to start.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York declined to comment when reached by The Washington Times later Thursday.
Mr. Schulte, 31, stands accused of leaking classified CIA hacking tools to WikiLeaks that were later released by the website beginning in March 2017. He has pleaded not guilty.
He has been jailed for more than two years while awaiting trial at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, where prosecutors allege he subsequently contained to leak sensitive material from behind bars.
Judge Crotty, an appointee of former President George W. Bush, indicated last month that he is unlikely to postpone Mr. Schulte’s trial beyond its scheduled start date.
“There will be no further adjournments,” he ruled at the time.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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