Ex-CIA analyst who leaked docs about Israeli strike on Iran sentenced to 37 months in prison

A former CIA analyst who admitted to leaking classified documents about a planned Israeli strike on Iran last year has been sentenced to 37 months in prison.

Asif William Rahman, 34, pleaded guilty in January to two counts of willful retention and transmission of classified information after being arrested last November for taking records from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency in October that showed Israel was planning to launch airstrikes against Iran in response to the Muslim county's missile attack, according to the New York Post.

Rahman had been a CIA employee since 2016 and had access to top-secret documents, and the information he stole was leaked on social media platforms, which forced Israel to delay its attack. 

U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles sentenced Rahman on Wednesday to three years and one month in federal prison, which is less than the government had demanded. 

“Asif Rahman violated his position of trust by illegally accessing, removing, and transmitting Top Secret documents vital to the national security of the United States and its allies,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Erik Siebert said in a statement.

“The urgency with which Mr. Rahman was identified, arrested, charged, and prosecuted is a testament to the commitment and professionalism of the investigators and prosecutors who brought him to justice. This case should serve as a stern warning to those who choose to place their own goals over their allegiance to our nation.”

On Oct. 17, Rahman sneaked classified documents out of the U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where he worked, and photographed and then transmitted them to other people, before destroying the evidence, the Department of Justice said.

The next day, the top-secret documents appeared on the “Middle East Spectator” Telegram channel, and “appeared publicly on multiple social media platforms, complete with the classification ranking,” according to federal prosecutors.

The documents included intelligence taken from satellite images of an Israeli base taken on Oct. 15 and 16. The leak forced Israeli officials to postpone their attack until Oct. 26.

When Rahman worked in Virginia as a CIA analyst in spring 2024, he took five secret and top-secret documents, made copies of them, and gave them to people who weren't authorized to see them. He leaked 10 more classified documents in the fall.

“I fully accept responsibility for my conduct last year,” Rahman said in court Wednesday, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported. “There was no excuse for my actions.”

His attorneys claimed that his actions were the result of “family-related grief” and a traumatic assignment in Iraq, which was compounded by Israel’s war against Hamas.