WCBC

Harold Thomas Martin III was a contractor with the federal government and had a top secret national clearance. The New York Times reports Martin was a contractor for the National Security Agency who, like Edward Snowden, worked for the consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton.

Search warrants were executed at Martin's residence in Glen Burnie, which included two storage sheds as well as his vehicle. While executing the warrant, investigators located hard copy documents and digital information stored on various devices and removable digital media. A large portion of the materials recovered indicated that they were property of the United States and contained highly classified information, including Top Secret and Sensitive Compartmented Information. In addition, investigators found federal property with a value in excess of $1,000, which Martin allegedly stole.

Also found in the search were six classified documents obtained from sensitive intelligence and produced in 2014. The documents were said to have been critical to national security issues. All of them were confirmed by an original classification authority to be classified as top secret. Martin was not authorized to take classified documents to his car or home. During an interview with investigators, he denied, then later admitted he took documents and digital files from his assignment and home despite knowing they were classified and that he did not have the authorization to do, according to the criminal complaint against him.

Investigators didn't say if there was any reason to believe the documents had been transmitted or otherwise exposed to a third party.