A former CIA officer was convicted on January 26 of leaking classified information to a New York Times reporter about a secret U.S. operation aimed at deterring Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the Washington Post reported.
Jeffrey Sterling was found guilty on nine counts of unauthorized disclosure of national defense information that prosecutors said put lives at risk and compromised U.S. efforts to deter Iran's nuclear plans, the report said.
The plan involved providing Iran with intentionally flawed nuclear-weapons blueprints through a former Russian scientist.
Sterling was first accused in 2010 of giving classified information to Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist James Risen for his book, “State of War.”
Prosecutors alleged that Sterling who was fired from the CIA in the early 2000s, was trying to get revenge on the CIA when he talked to Risen.