ALEXANDRIA, Va. — A CIA analyst charged with leaking top secret details ahead of a planned Israeli attack on Iran earlier this year will remain jailed pending trial, a judge ordered Wednesday.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge Patricia Tolliver Giles overrules 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 disclosing national defense information.
The fight over Rahman’s detention revealed additional details about the government’s investigation of the leak and the analyst who allegedly disclosed the classified documents in October on the Telegram messaging app.
At 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 the conclusion that Rahman’s motive was ideological was essentially process of elimination, noting that Rahman comes from a wealthy family and has access to a multimillion-dollar family trust, and therefore wouldn’t have a financial incentive.
Edwards also highlighted eight pages of notes found on Rahman when he was arrested last month in Cambodia, where he worked at the U.S. embassy in Phnom Penh. Those notes included two separate “to-do” lists, one of which was largely blocks of apparently encrypted text along with an unencrypted sentence pertaining to U.S. missile capabilities. Edwards said investigators have not yet been able to decipher the encryption.
A separate, unencrypted to-do list included categories labeled “contingencies” and “run,” Edwards said.
Official court documents are vague about what was leaked, but details discussed in open court make clear that it references an October disclosure of documents from the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and National Security Agency noting that Israel was moving military assets into place to conduct a military strike on Iran after Iran launched its own missile attack on Israel on Oct. 1.
Israel ended up carrying out an attack on Iran’s air defense systems and missile manufacturing facilities in late October.
In court papers, 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 hard to overstate what other circumstances present graver risks of danger to human life than unilaterally deciding to transmitting information related to plans for kinetic military action between two countries,” prosecutors wrote in court papers.
Rahman’s attorney, Amy Jeffress, cited anonymous sources in news articles who have downplayed the leak’s significance.
Jeffress said the to-do list included the word “run” because Rahman is an avid jogger. She also said it’s rare for defendants facing similar charges to be detained pending trial.
Rahman was born in California and moved with his family when he was a child to Cincinnati, where he was a high school valedictorian, according to court papers submitted by his lawyer. He went to Yale University and graduated in three years. He and his wife now live in the D.C. metro area, along with his parents.
His father, Muhit Rahman, who was prepared to serve as his son’s custodian pretrial if he had been released, attended Wednesday’s hearing along with numerous family members and friends in support.
Rahman made his initial court appearance last month in Guam.
Jeffress said after Wednesday’s hearing that she intends to appeal the detention order.