Snowden Becomes Eighth Person to Be Indicted for Espionage by the Obama Justice Department

[Ichingcarpenter]

Snip.


Snowden is the eighth person to be indicted under the Espionage Act under Obama. This is more than all previous presidential administrations combined.

NSA whistleblower Thomas Drake was indicted for espionage in April 2010 after he communicated information on surveillance programs to a Baltimore Sun reporter.

For disclosing classified information on FBI wiretaps to a blogger, FBI translator named Shamai Leibowitz was indicted under the Espionage Act in May 2010.

Pfc. Bradley Manning was charged with multiple violations of the Espionage Act in July 2010 after disclosing US government information to WikiLeaks.

Stephen Kim, a former State Department contractor, was indicted in August 2010 for revealing classified information on North Korea to Fox News reporter James Rosen. (Rosen was labeled an “aider, abettor and co-conspirator” in the leak.)

In December 2010, a former CIA officer, Jeffrey Sterling, was indicted under the Espionage Act after he communicated with New York Times reporter James Risen about Iran’s nuclear program in the 1990s. (The Obama Justice Department has fought in the courts to have a judge require Risen to testify against Sterling.)

John Kiriakou, a former CIA officer, was indicted under the Espionage Act in January 2012 after he shared information related to a rendition operation with reporter Matthew Cole.

A much lesser-known individual, James Hitselberger, a former Navy linguist, was indicted for espionage for providing classified documents to the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

The Espionage Act charges were dropped in the cases of Drake, Kiriakou and Leibowitz. Manning has pled guilty to lesser offenses but not the espionage charges. Hitselberger, Kim and Sterling’s cases are all still pending. [Kiriakou's serving a 30-month sentence in a prison in Loretto, Pennsylvania, after pleading guilty to violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act.]

Both Drake and Kiriakou’s cases went through the Eastern District of Virginia. Sterling’s case is pending in the same jurisdiction.


snip.


http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2013/06/21/snowden-becomes-eighth-person-to-be-indicted-for-espionage-by-the-obama-justice-department/#comments

[Cali_Democrat]

1. This is true

This DOJ is extremely heavy handed when it comes to prosecuting people who leak classified information.

But in all the cases mentioned in the article, it does appear as though the espionage act was violated. I'm sure many will bargain for lesser charges. Except Snowden of course will be screwed if he ever sets foot again on US soil because they will throw everything they can at him.