Judge orders CIA analyst accused of Israel-Iran leak held pending trial
Alexandria, Virginia — A CIA analyst accused of leaking top-secret details ahead of a planned Israeli attack on Iran earlier this year will remain jailed pending trial, a judge ruled Wednesday.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles rejects a magistrate who said last week that Asif Rahman, 34, of Vienna, Virginia, could be free on restrictions while he awaits trial on charges of public disclosure national defense information.
The fight over Rahman’s detention revealed additional details about the government’s investigation into the leak and the analyst who allegedly made the classified documents public in October via the messaging app Telegram.
During Wednesday’s detention hearing, prosecutor Troy Edwards said Rahman was motivated by ideology, though he did not discuss what that ideology might be.
In fact, he said that concluding that Rahman’s motive was ideological was essentially a process of elimination, noting that Rahman comes from a wealthy family and has access to a multimillion-dollar family trust, and therefore would have no financial incentive.
Edwards also highlighted eight pages of notes he found on Rahman when he was arrested last month in Cambodia, where he was working at the US embassy in Phnom Penh. Those notes contained two separate “to-do” lists, one of which consisted largely of blocks of apparently coded text, along with an uncoded sentence related to U.S. missile capabilities. Edwards said researchers have not yet been able to decipher the encryption.
A separate, unencrypted task list contained categories called “contingencies” and “executes,” Edwards said.
Official court documents are vague about what was leaked, but details discussed in open court make it clear that it refers to an October disclosure of documents from the National Agency for Geospatial Intelligence And National Security Agency noting that Israel was moving military assets to carry out a military attack on Iran, after Iran launched its own missile attack on Israel on October 1.
Israel ended carrying out an attack on Iran’s air defense systems and missile production facilities in late October.
In court filings, the government said the leak caused Israel to delay its attack plans. Edwards said the volatile nature of the Middle East makes the leak exceptionally dangerous.
“It is difficult to overstate what other circumstances pose greater risks of endangering human life than unilaterally deciding to transmit information regarding plans for kinetic military action between two countries,” prosecutors wrote in court filings.
Rahman’s lawyer, Amy Jeffress, quoted anonymous sources in news articles who downplayed the significance of the leak.
Jeffress said the to-do list included the word “run” because Rahman is an avid jogger. She also said it is rare for suspects facing similar charges to be held pending trial.
Rahman was born in California and moved with his family when he was a child to Cincinnati, where he was high school valedictorian, according to court documents filed by his attorney. He went to Yale University and graduated in three years. He and his wife now live in the DC metro area with his parents.
His father, Muhit Rahman, who was willing to act as a custodian at his son’s pretrial hearing if he were released, attended Wednesday’s hearing, along with numerous relatives and friends in support.
Rahman made his first court appearance in Guam last month.
Jeffress said after the hearing Wednesday that she plans to appeal the arrest warrant.