CIA whistleblower Jeffrey Sterling convicted of espionage in NYT leak case

Jeffrey Sterling.


Jeffrey Sterling.

Former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling has been convicted of all 9 counts in a case that charged him with leaking classified information about a failed operation to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions to New York Times reporter James Risen.

Jurors convicted 47-year-old Jeffrey Sterling, of O'Fallon, Missouri, of all nine counts he faced in federal court. On the third day of deliberations, the jurors had told the judge that they could not reach a unanimous verdict. But they delivered guilty verdicts later in the afternoon after the judge urged them to keep talking.

At issue in the two-week trial: Who told journalist James Risen about the secret mission, one that former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice testified was one of the government's most closely held secrets as well as one of its best chances to thwart Iran's nuclear-weapons ambitions?

"Ex-CIA officer convicted of leaking secrets to reporter" [AP]

"C.I.A. Officer in Leak Case, Jeffrey Sterling, Is Convicted of Espionage" [nytimes.com]

"Former CIA officer convicted in leak case" [wapo]

Previously: "U.S. tries to convict Jeffrey Sterling for retroactively classified documents about rotary phones"