WASHINGTON -- The FBI has arrested a National Security Agency contractor and is investigating whether he stole and disclosed highly classified computer code developed to hack into the networks of foreign governments, according to several senior law enforcement and intelligence officials.
The contractor was identified as Harold Thomas Martin III, 51, of Glen Burnie, Md., according to a criminal complaint filed in late August. He was charged with theft of government property and unauthorized removal or retention of classified documents. During an FBI raid of his house, agents seized documents and digital information stored on electronic devices. A large percentage of the materials found in his house and car contained highly classified information.
At the time, FBI agents interviewed Martin, and he initially denied having taken the documents and digital files. The agency later said he had stated that he knew he was not authorized to have the materials. According to the complaint, he told the agency "he knew what he had done was wrong and that he should not have done it because he knew it was unauthorized."
In a brief statement issued Wednesday, lawyers for Martin said: "We have not seen any evidence. But what we know is that Hal Martin loves his family and his country. There is no evidence that he intended to betray his country."
Martin worked for the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, which is responsible for building and operating many of the agency's most sensitive cyber operations, the same agency that employed Edward Snowden, who in 2013 leaked a trove of documents on NSA surveillance programs.
Martin is suspected of taking the computer code developed by the agency to break into computer systems of states such as Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. Two officials said that some of the information the contractor is suspected of taking was dated.
Officials said Martin did not fit any of the usual profiles of an "insider threat," and it is unclear whether he had political motives, as Snowden did when he exposed programs that he said violated the privacy of U.S. citizens.
The breadth of the damage Martin is alleged to have caused was not immediately clear, though officials said some of the documents he allegedly took home "could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security of the United States."
An administration official said the case had been handled secretively not "to keep this guy from becoming another NSA martyr," but because it was a continuing law enforcement case and the hope was that Martin would cooperate. The official said investigators suspected that Martin might have taken the material before Snowden's actions became public.
The official said that at the moment it did not look like an espionage case, but added the caveat that it is a continuing investigation. At the same time, the official said that investigators think Martin is not politically motivated -- "not like a Snowden or someone who believes that what we were doing was illegal and wanted to publicize that."
It is not clear when and how authorities first learned the contractor's identity, when they believe he began taking information, or whether he passed it to people outside the government.
"We're struggling to figure him out," the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because no indictment has been publicly released.
Martin was charged in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. The government is allowed to charge people and take them before a court in secret. That happens most often when defendants are cooperating or negotiating plea deals, or out of fear for their safety.
An NSA spokesman declined to comment.
In a statement attached to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Booz Allen said that when it learned one of its employees was arrested, "we immediately reached out to the authorities to offer our total cooperation in their investigation, and we fired the employee. We continue to cooperate fully with the government on its investigation into this serious matter." The company said there had "been no material changes to our client engagements as a result of this matter."
Military records and an online profile show that Martin was a decorated Navy officer and reservist with a broad interest in cyber matters. His attorney said he was a Navy lieutenant, and records show he served for more than a decade, spending some years on the USS Seattle before ending his military career in the inactive Reserve. Among the awards he received were a Joint Meritorious Unit Award, a Navy Expeditionary Medal and a National Defense Service Medal.
Federal Public Defender Jim Wyda and First Assistant Federal Public Defender Deborah Boardman, who are representing Martin, said in a statement that the charges against Martin were "mere allegations" and they had not yet seen prosecutors' evidence.
If convicted, Martin would face a maximum of 11 years in prison. The U.S. attorney's office in Maryland said he appeared in court Aug. 29 and remains in custody. The charges against him were unsealed Wednesday.
Information for this article was contributed by Jo Becker, Adam Goldman, Michael S. Schmidt, Matt Apuzzo, David E. Sanger, Scott Shane and Mark Mazzetti and by Matt Zapotosky, Ellen Nakashima, John Woodrow Cox, Sari Horwitz and Julie Tate of The Washington Post.
A Section on 10/06/2016