WASHINGTON — The FBI secretly arrested a former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor in August and, according to law-enforcement officials, is investigating whether he stole and disclosed highly classified computer code developed by the agency to hack into the networks of foreign governments. Harold Thomas Martin III, 51, of Glen Burnie, Maryland, was arrested by the FBI in August after he admitted to having taken government secrets, authorities said. Image copyright Twitter

Six of the documents found in Mr Martin's possession were classified as top secret, "meaning that unauthorized disclosure reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave damage to the national security of the US", the Justice Department said. The arrest raises the embarrassing prospect that for the second time in three years, a contractor for the consulting company Booz Allen Hamilton managed to steal highly damaging secret information while working for the NSA. There is no evidence that he intended to betray his country.”

If true, the accusations against Martin are a setback for the Obama administration, which has sustained a series of disclosures of classified information. "What we do know is that Hal Martin loves his family and his country. The Justice Department’s chief national security prosecutor John Carlin said Harold Thomas Martin (51) worked as a government contractor for Booz Allen Hamilton, the same consulting firm that employed Edward Snowden when he revealed the collection of meta-data by the National Security Agency. According to a criminal complaint, Harold Thomas Martin III, 51, was charged with theft of government property and unauthorized removal and retention of classified materials by a government employee or contractor after searches of his home and property revealed hard-copy and digital files containing "highly classified information." In 2013, Edward Snowden, who was also a Booz Allen contractor, took a vast trove of documents from the agency that later were passed to journalists, exposing surveillance programs in the United States and abroad.
The United States Department of Justice charges a top secret security clearance National Security Agency contractor, Harold Thomas Martin III, with theft of government property and unauthorised removal of "highly classified" materials.