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voting software supplier and send “spear-phishing” emails to more than 100 local officials days before the Nov. The NSA report described Russian efforts to launch cyber attacks on at least one U.S. intelligence contractor Reality Leigh Winner with violating the Espionage Act for leaking a classified report on Russian interference in U.S. A judge sentenced Sachtleben that year to a 43-month prison term for the national security offenses and a consecutive 97-month term for unrelated child pornography charges. YEMEN BOMB PLOTįormer FBI bomb analyst Donald Sachtleben agreed in September 2013 to plead guilty to disclosing national defense information for telling an Associated Press reporter details of a failed airline bombing attempt by Yemen-based al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Snowden prompted a worldwide debate after he gave documents to newspapers showing the extent of U.S. officials said in June 2013 they had filed sealed criminal charges against former NSA contractor Edward Snowden for unauthorized leaks and theft of government property. He was released in February 2015 on condition that he serve three months of house arrest. In an agreement with prosecutors, he pleaded guilty to one count and was sentenced to two and a half years in prison. INTERROGATION LEAKįormer CIA officer John Kiriakou was charged in 2012 with divulging to journalists secret information about the CIA’s interrogation program, including the identity of a covert officer. A judge sentenced him to 42 months in prison. BOOK SOURCEįormer CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling was charged in 2011 with illegally disclosing classified information about Iran to James Risen, a New York Times reporter, for his book “State of War.” A jury convicted Sterling in 2015. He pleaded guilty in 2014 and was sentenced to thirteen months in prison. A grand jury indicted him in 2010 for disclosing defense information and making false statements. intelligence believed about how North Korea would respond to new sanctions. State Department contract analyst, allegedly divulged to a Fox News reporter what U.S. He reached an agreement with prosecutors before he was charged, and pleaded guilty in 2009 to one count of disclosing classified information. Shamai Leibowitz was an FBI translator when material that he heard while translating ended up on a blog. Eventually, after the government’s case against Rosen and Weissman collapsed, a judge reduced Franklin’s sentence to 10 months in a halfway house. Franklin pleaded guilty and received a 12-year sentence. Lawrence Franklin, a Defense Department employee, was charged in 2005 with passing classified information about Iran to two pro-Israel lobbyists, Steven Rosen and Keith Weissman. He was sentenced to two years in prison but paroled. He pleaded not guilty, but a jury convicted him, making him the first person convicted under the Espionage Act for divulging secrets to the press. Samuel Morison, a former Navy intelligence analyst, was charged in 1984 with illegally passing secret photographs of Soviet ships to a magazine, Jane’s Defence Weekly. Charges against the two men were dismissed when a judge found that the government had wiretapped Ellsberg, possibly illegally. The secret documents revealed the extent of U.S. PENTAGON PAPERSĭaniel Ellsberg became the first such case in 1971 when prosecutors accused the national security analyst and his colleague, Anthony Russo, of providing what would become known as the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times and other media outlets. Here are the 12 cases, dating back 46 years. Republican President Donald Trump has complained for months about leaks to the news media, but his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama, also took a hard line on leaking.Įight of the 12 cases where federal prosecutors charged individuals with violating the Espionage Act, a World War One-era law aimed at keeping sensitive information out of the hands of the United States’ enemies, were brought under Obama. FILE PHOTO: White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders holds the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, U.S.