A former US government contractor is facing nine years in prison after pleading guilty to one count of willful retention of national defense information. This is more than 20 years after the crime, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Harold Thomas Martin, III, 54, was employed by at least seven different private companies and assigned as a contractor to work at a number of government agencies from December 1993 through Aug. 27, 2016, according to his plea agreement.
He held security clearances that meant he could access top secret and Sensitive Compartmented Information (SCI) that should under no circumstances be put at risk of disclosure. Yet that’s exactly what Martin did when he took the data home and even held it in his car, the DOJ said in a press release.
