Vienna resident and former CIA employee sentenced for sharing top-secret information

Former CIA analyst to spend three years in federal jail after pleading guilty for improperly sharing top-secret national defense information

Asif William Rahman (34), of Vienna, , was sentenced to a total sentence of 37 months of imprisonment — down from a maximum sentence of 20 year.

According to the Department of Justice, Rahman used his top-secret security clearance at least 15 times in 2024 to copy classified documents.

Rahman hid the documents in a backpack before taking them home. He shared the documents with “multiple people he knew weren’t entitled to it.”

Although the content of each document is not public, a CIA co-worker stated in December the distribution of these documents “could cause […] extremely grave damage to national security of United States.”

Prosecutors said that at least two documents shared by Rahman appeared later on “multiple social networking platforms”.

Rahman, who tried to edit the images of the documents so as to hide his involvement, returned the documents back to his office and destroyed them.

John Eisenberg, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, said that the defendant had betrayed both the American people and his oaths taken upon entering office. He leaked some of the nation’s most tightly held secrets over a period of months.

Rahman, who had been indicted on November 7, by a federal grand jury, pleaded guilty on January 17, 2009.