A former National Security Agency contractor has been indicted on 20 criminal counts involving the theft of highly classified information from the federal government during more than two decades of employment, federal prosecutors announced Wednesday.

Harold T. Martin III of Glen Burnie, Maryland, is accused of stealing more than a half-billion pages of top-secret documents and records from the U.S. government from 1996 to 2016.

The indictment against Mr. Martin indicates that the classified documents found at his home and in his car included information from the NSA, the U.S. Cyber Command, the National Reconnaissance Office and the CIA.

Twenty documents individually identified in the indictment include daily operations briefings from the NSA, a 2016 Cyber Command report detailing military capabilities and gaps for specific operations, a 2008 CIA document detailing methods of intelligence sources and collection, and an NSA anti-terrorism operation planning document.

The Justice Department has disclosed that the identities of covert intelligence officers were among the stolen classified information.

“Martin allegedly violated the trust our nation put in him by stealing and retaining classified documents and other material relating to the national defense,” said Mary McCord, acting assistant attorney general for national security.

“Insider threats are a significant danger to our national security, and we will continue to work relentlessly with our law enforcement and intelligence partners to identify, pursue and prosecute such individuals,” Ms. McCord said.

Mr. Martin’s attorneys have called his behavior that of a “compulsive hoarder” who took documents to his Glen Burnie home as a way to study and become better at his job. They have said there is no indication that he shared the information with anyone, and the indictment makes no such allegations.

All 20 of the criminal counts filed against Mr. Martin are for willful retention of national defense information. He faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for each count.

Mr. Martin has remained in custody since he was arrested in August. A hearing on the case is scheduled for Tuesday.

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