WASHINGTON – A former National Security Agency computer scientist was sentenced to five-and-a-half years on Tuesday after pleading guilty to storing classified documents at his home.

Nghia Hoang Pho, 68, of Ellicott City, Maryland, pleaded guilty to deliberately keeping classified information on national defense.

From 2010 to March 2015, Pho withdrew confidential information and confidential information on national defense and stored the material in several locations around his home, in accordance with the plea agreement. Pho knew he was not allowed to remove the equipment from the work or store it at home, according to the agreement.

US District Judge George Russell sentenced him to three years of probation.

"The intentional, reckless and illegal retention of highly classified information by Pho for nearly five years has jeopardized the capabilities and methods of our intelligence community, rendering some of them unusable," said John Demers, prosecutor. Deputy General for National Security. "Today's ruling reaffirms the government's expectations of those who have vowed to protect the secrets of our nation."

Pho, a citizen of Vietnam, naturalized, started working on the NSA's bespoke access operations in April 2006 and held various security clearances. Tailored Access Operations has collected information from foreign information systems and has taken steps to prevent, detect and respond to unauthorized activities within the Department of Defense's computers.

During his years of security clearance, Mr. Pho received training on handling, tagging, transporting and storing classified information. Pho was also informed that the unauthorized removal of classified material, as well as the transport and storage of such material in unauthorized locations, could be disclosed and could compromise national security.

"The removal and preservation of these highly classified documents testifies to a total disregard for Pho's oath and promises to protect the national security of our country," said US lawyer Robert Hur. "Through its actions, Pho has compromised some of the types of intelligence most closely related to our country and forced the NSA to abandon important initiatives to protect itself and its operational capabilities at high economic and operational costs.

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