Thomas A. Drake, 52, worked as a high ranking employee at the NSA between 2001 and 2008, according to the 10-count indictment, delivered Thursday by a federal grand jury in the District of Maryland. Between February 2006 and November the following year, a newspaper reporter published a series of articles about the NSA. Drake was a source for many of those articles, including stories containing classified information, the indictment alleges.
Drake, who was introduced to the reporter in November 2005 by a former congressional staffer, exchanged hundreds of emails with the reporter, according to the indictment. He paid for a premium account on an email service enabling users to exchange secure emails without disclosing the sender or recipient's identity, according to the charges, which alleged that Drake contacted the reporter using an alias and offered to divulge information about the NSA. Drake allegedly directed the reporter to create their own secure email accounts, required the reporter never to reveal Drake's identity, and never to use him as a single source for information.
Drake also allegedly emailed other NSA employees to obtain access to classified information, copying and pasting it into untitled word processing documents, and printing classified documents so that he could take them home and keep them there without authority. He also scanned and emailed electronic copies of classified documents to the reporter from his home computer, according to the indictment, which also alleges that he began shredding classified documents, including handwritten notes that he had removed from the NSA, when the FBI began a criminal investigation.
According to the Department of Justice, willful retention of classified documents carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail. Drake could receive 20 years for the obstruction of justice charges, and the charge of making false statements could land him in prison for up to five years. Each of the charged counts carries a maximum fine of $250,000.