WASHINGTON (AP) – A CIA employee accused of leaking classified information assessment of Israel’s past plans to attack Iran was ordered Thursday by a federal judge to face felony charges in Virginia.

The FBI arrested Asif William Rahman this week in Cambodia, and he made his first court appearance Thursday in Guam. A judge there ordered him transferred to northern Virginia, where he was indicted last week on two counts of withholding and intentionally transmitting national defense information.

Court documents do not identify the federal agency that hired him, but a person familiar with the case, who was not authorized to discuss it, confirmed to The Associated Press that it was the CIA.

The indictment does not elaborate on the specifics of the allegations, but says Rahman had a top-secret security clearance and access to classified sensitive information. It accuses him of having unauthorized possession of top secret documents related to national defense information and then illegally sharing them.

It was not immediately clear who will represent Rahman in Virginia and may speak on his behalf.

The charges stem from documents attributed to him National Geospatial Information Agency and National Security Agencywhich appeared last month on a channel of the messaging app Telegram. The documents stated that Israel is still moving existing military assets to carry out a military strike in response to Iran’s fulminant attack with ballistic missiles on October 1.

Israel carried out a revenge attack on Iran’s air defense systems and missile production facilities in late October.

The documents could be shared within the “Five Eyes”, which are the United States, Great Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

The release of the documents sparked an FBI investigation that looked into how the documents were obtained — including whether it was an intentional leak by a member of the US intelligence community or was obtained through another method, such as a hack – and if any other information information has been compromised. .

Officials also worked to determine who had access to the documents before they were posted.

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