The U.S. Justice
Department released the below information:
U.S. District Judge
Richard D. Bennett sentenced Harold Thomas Martin, III, age 54, of Glen Burnie,
Maryland, to nine years in federal prison, followed by three years of
supervised release, for willful retention of national defense information.
The sentence was
announced by Assistant Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers,
U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland Robert K. Hur, Assistant Director
John Brown of the FBI’s Counterintelligence Division and Special Agent in
Charge Jennifer C. Boone of the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office.
“Harold Martin was
entrusted with some of the nation’s most sensitive information,” said Assistant
Attorney General Demers. “Instead of respecting the trust given to him by
the American people, Martin violated that trust and put our nation’s security
at risk. This sentence will hold Mr. Martin accountable for his dangerous
and unlawful actions.”
“For nearly 20 years,
Harold Martin betrayed the trust placed in him by stealing and retaining a vast
quantity of highly classified national defense information entrusted to him,”
stated U.S. Attorney Robert K. Hur. “This sentence, which is one of the
longest ever imposed in this type of case, should serve as a warning that we
will find and prosecute government employees and contractors who flagrantly
violate their duty to protect classified materials.”
“Whether an individual
is a federal contractor or government employee, when given the privilege of
holding a security clearance, the American people expect classified information
to be protected,” said Assistant Director Brown. “That is essential to
protecting our national security. In this case, Harold Martin was a
serial offender in retaining national defense information for more than two
decades. Today’s sentencing should signal that the FBI takes these
violations extremely seriously and will vigorously investigate cases when
people improperly handle classified information.”
“Harold Martin took an
oath to preserve and protect the nation's secrets, and violated that oath
repeatedly over many years, causing damage with his unlawful mishandling of
classified information,” said Special Agent in Charge Jennifer C. Boone, FBI
Baltimore Field Office. “Martin’s actions harmed Intelligence Community
sources and methods. The vitality and integrity of the Intelligence
Community requires the strictest adherence to the law for handling classified
information. The FBI will be tireless in investigating cases like the
Martin case.”
According to his plea
agreement, from December 1993 through Aug. 27, 2016, Martin was employed
by at least seven different private companies and assigned as a contractor to
work at a number of government agencies. Martin was required to receive
and maintain a security clearance in order to work at each of the government
agencies to which he was assigned. Martin held security clearances up to
Top Secret and Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) at various
times. A Top Secret classification means that unauthorized disclosure
reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the
national security of the United States. An SCI designation
compartmentalizes extremely sensitive information. Because of his work
responsibilities and security clearance, Martin was able to access government
computer systems, programs, and information in secure locations, including
classified national defense information. Over his many years of holding a
security clearance, Martin received training regarding classified information
and his duty to protect classified materials from unauthorized disclosure.
Martin admitted that
beginning in the late 1990s and continuing through Aug. 31, 2016, he stole
and retained U.S. government property from secure locations and computer
systems, including documents in both hard copy and digital form relating to the
national defense, that bore markings indicating that they were the property of
the United States and contained highly classified information of the United
States, including Top Secret/SCI information.
As detailed in his
plea agreement, Martin retained the stolen documents and other classified
information at his residence and in his vehicle. Martin knew that the
hard copy and digital documents stolen from his workplace contained classified
information that related to the national defense and that he was never
authorized to retain these documents at his residence or in his vehicle.
Martin admitted that he also knew that the unauthorized removal of these
materials risked their disclosure, which would be damaging to the national
security of the United States and highly useful to its adversaries.
In court documents and
at today’s sentencing hearing, the government noted that crimes such as
Martin’s not only create a risk of unauthorized disclosure of, or access to,
highly classified information, but often require the government to treat the
stolen material as compromised, resulting in the government having to take
remedial actions including changing or abandoning national security
programs. In addition, Martin’s criminal conduct caused the government to
expend substantial investigative and analytical resources. The diversion
of those resources resulted in significant costs.
Assistant Attorney
General for National Security John C. Demers and United States Attorney Robert
K. Hur commended the FBI for its work in the investigation and thanked the
National Security Agency for its assistance. Mr. Hur and Mr. Demers
thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Zachary A. Myers and Harvey E. Eisenberg, and
Trial Attorney David Aaron of the National Security Division’s
Counterintelligence and Export Control Section, who prosecuted the case.
