Washington, United States : US prosecutors on Thursday said they expected to file espionage charges against a private contractor for the National Security Agency suspected of stealing an "astonishing quantity" of classified information.
Harold Martin III was arrested August 27 in Maryland and poses a "grave danger" to the United States, prosecutors wrote in a filing ahead of a detention hearing set for Friday in Baltimore.
Martin, who has now been fired, worked for Booz Allen Hamilton -- the same firm that hired the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
"The defendant violated that trust by engaging in wholesale theft of classified government documents and property -- a course of felonious conduct that is breathtaking in its longevity and scale," prosecutors wrote.
One single gigabyte is enough space to store about 10,000 pages of documents containing images and text.
Some of the documents "appear" to contain national defense information and Martin allegedly kept the files in his car and lying around his Maryland home.
"The government anticipates that the charges will include violations of the Espionage Act, an offense that carries significantly higher statutory penalties and advisory guideline ranges than the charges listed in the complaint," prosecutors wrote.
Martin does not appear to have a valid passport and investigators have not said he sent information to foreign governments.
Booz Allen has said it reached out to offer full cooperation with the authorities as soon as it learned of the arrest, and quickly fired Martin.
The arrest came after investigators began looking into the theft of source code
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Harold Martin III was arrested August 27 in Maryland and poses a "grave danger" to the United States, prosecutors wrote in a filing ahead of a detention hearing set for Friday in Baltimore.
Martin, who has now been fired, worked for Booz Allen Hamilton -- the same firm that hired the NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden.
"The defendant violated that trust by engaging in wholesale theft of classified government documents and property -- a course of felonious conduct that is breathtaking in its longevity and scale," prosecutors wrote.
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One single gigabyte is enough space to store about 10,000 pages of documents containing images and text.
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Some of the documents "appear" to contain national defense information and Martin allegedly kept the files in his car and lying around his Maryland home.
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"The government anticipates that the charges will include violations of the Espionage Act, an offense that carries significantly higher statutory penalties and advisory guideline ranges than the charges listed in the complaint," prosecutors wrote.
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Martin does not appear to have a valid passport and investigators have not said he sent information to foreign governments.
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Booz Allen has said it reached out to offer full cooperation with the authorities as soon as it learned of the arrest, and quickly fired Martin.
The arrest came after investigators began looking into the theft of source code
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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