Alexandria, Virginia (CNN) A former National Security Agency intelligence analyst pleaded not guilty Friday to charges that he leaked classified information to a reporter.

At an initial appearance hearing in Virginia federal court, Daniel Hale also waived his right to a speedy trial, acknowledging what a judge said could be an unusually long trial because of the amount of sensitive information it will cover.

Hale was arrested last week in Nashville and charged with multiple counts of mishandling national defense information.

According to court documents, Hale, a former airman who also served as an intelligence officer at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, allegedly printed dozens of documents from his government computer and provided at least 17 to a reporter, many of which were classified as top secret or secret.

The reporter and the news outlet he or she works for was not identified in court documents, but appears to be Jeremy Scahill, a co-founder of the investigative news outlet The Intercept, who has written extensively about the covert US drone program.

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