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CIA Director John Brennan's personal email account at one point was compromised. | AP Photo Student pleads guilty in hacking ring that targeted CIA Director John Brennan

A North Carolina college student entered a guilty plea Friday to taking part in a hacking ring that harassed a series of senior U.S. Government officials and broke into a personal email account of CIA Director John Brennan.

Justin Liverman, 24, who lives in Morehead City and is known online as "D3F4ULT," appeared in an Alexandria, Va. federal courtroom to admit to one felony count of conspiracy to violate the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, commit identity theft and make harassing, anonymous phone calls.

"I plead guilty," Liverman quietly told U.S. District Court Judge Gerald Bruce Lee near the conclusion of a half-hour hearing Friday morning.

Officials accused Liverman of being part of a loose-knit group of hackers known as "Crackas with Attitude."

Messages the "Crackas" obtained from Brennan's America Online email account, including a sensitive government security clearance application, were posted online by WikiLeaks in October 2015. That's the same pro-transparency website that roiled the U.S. presidential campaign last year by releasing nearly 60,000 emails hacked from Hillary Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta's personal Gmail account.

U.S. intelligence agencies including the FBI have attributed that hack to individuals acting on behalf of the Russian government. However, the FBI and federal prosecutors have not alleged any foreign government links in the effort to penetrate Brennan's account and in the use of similar tactics to harass other unnamed U.S. government officials. The leader of the "Crackas" group was based in the United Kingdom, officials say.

In addition to seeking private information about U.S. officials and sometimes releasing it online, the group also placed harassing phone calls and made threats to its targets, prosecutors allege.

Liverman was specifically accused of requesting and receiving hacked information from a law enforcement database, including names, phone numbers and email addresses of police officers in the Miami area, and posting that data online last January.

A statement of facts Liverman agreed to as part of the plea suggests he had little involvement in the Brennan hack. However, it says Liverman congratulated "CRACKA," the U.K.-based leader of of the hacking group, for breaking into Brennan's account and urged the hacker to "stay safe and dban" the related files—online lingo for erasing potentially incriminating data.

Liverman appears to have played a greater role in the targeting of Greg Mecher, the husband of White House Communication Director Jen Psaki. She appears to have drawn the hackers' attention because she publicly criticized Edward Snowden, the National Security Agency leaker who became a hero to many hackers by giving journalists top-secret files on U.S. surveillance programs.

The statement of facts filed Friday says Liverman encouraged CRACKA to target Mecher and made "multiple attempts to gain unauthorized entry into [Mecher's] online Verizon account."

Despite the talk of covering their tracks, the hackers don't seem to have been bashful about boasting publicly about their activities.

Liverman posted a public Twitter message that tagged Psaki, saying: "dis is @Snowden, I heard u talkin s*** @jrpsaki so i tok ur acc b***." He also posted an image of Mecher's Verizon sign-in page and called him at home, while CRACKA called Psaki's cellphone and home phone multiple times "with the intent to harass her," the statement says.

Liverman faces a maximum possible sentence of five years in prison on the conspiracy charge. Defense lawyers said sentencing guidelines are expected to call for 21 to 27 months incarceration, but could range as high as 63 months if Liverman is deemed responsible for the roughly $1.5 million in damages prosecutors say are related to the hacking ring.

However, a stipulation that Liverman is responsible only for about $95,000 of those damages could help rein in his sentence. In addition, the five-year statutory cap means he cannot receive the full 63-month sentence.

Judges are required to consult the guidelines, but not obliged to follow them. Defense lawyers are expected to argue for a more lenient sentence, perhaps simply probation.

Without the plea deal on the single conspiracy charge, Liverman could have faced multiple felony charges of hacking, potentially exposing him to decades in prison.

"It could have been very ugly," said defense lawyer Jay Leiderman.

Another defense lawyer on the case, Marina Medvin, asked Lee to defer sentencing until May so Liverman can complete his semester at Carteret Community College in North Carolina. Liverman is studying computer science there and has a 3.75 grade point average, he said in response to questions from the judge.

Lee set May 12 for sentencing, but added: "If that conflicts with your exam schedule, provide some proof and I'll consider moving it."

Medvin told reporters after the hearing that she's hopeful Liverman will be able to put his intellect to better use in the future. "It's all about directing his intelligence...in a responsible way," she said.

A second American charged in the case, Andrew Boggs of North Wilkesboro, N.C., also is set to offer a plea to a conspiracy charge before Lee on Tuesday, court records show.

Both Boggs and Liverman were arrested in North Carolina in September and released on bond pending trial.

The U.K. residents allegedly involved in the hacking do not appear to have been charged publicly.