A former US National Security Agency contractor has agreed to plead guilty to stealing classified information in what may have been the largest heist of US government secrets in history.
Harold Martin is scheduled to plead guilty to one count of willful retention of national defence information at a federal court in Baltimore on January 22, according to court filings on Wednesday.
Prosecutors say Martin, who was indicted last February, spent up to 20 years stealing highly sensitive government material from the US intelligence community related to national defence, collecting a trove of secrets he hoarded at his home in Glen Burnie, Maryland.
Authorities say they seized 50 terabytes of data from Martin's home, which officials said could be the biggest theft of classified information in US history.
The government has not said what, if anything, Martin did with the stolen data.
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He faces up to 10 years in prison on the single count.
Martin has not struck a plea deal with prosecutors and could still be tried on the remaining 19 counts in the indictment, the court filings said.
A lawyer for Martin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
