Edward Snowden on espionage-act: what the evidence says · JRE #1368
SUBJECT: ESPIONAGE-ACT
Not a true/false call. Every claim is logged with its sources; read the exhibits below.
the only way to have the courts review the legality of the programs is to establish the programs exist. But the programs are classified, so you can't establish they exist unless you have evidence. But providing that evidence to courts, to journalists, to anyone is a felony that's punishable by 10 years per count under the Espionage Act.
What the evidence says 01 / RECORD
The core legal claim checks out: 18 U.S.C. 793, part of the 1917 Espionage Act, sets a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment per violation for unauthorized disclosure or retention of national defense information, and Snowden himself was charged in June 2013 under related Espionage Act provisions (18 U.S.C. 793(d), 798(a)(3)) plus theft of government property (18 U.S.C. 641). The broader pattern Snowden invokes, that this World War I era statute has increasingly been used against leakers of classified information rather than only traditional spies, is well documented: the Obama administration alone charged or convicted more people under the Espionage Act for leaking to the press than all previous administrations combined, and cases from Chelsea Manning to Reality Winner followed a pattern that traces back to Daniel Ellsberg's 1971 prosecution over the Pentagon Papers. The claim's implication that literally every significant public-interest leak source has been charged is Snowden's own characterization and is harder to verify as an unbroken universal rule; prosecutorial decisions vary case by case and not every recipient of classified material has been charged. Overall status: well-supported on the statutory 10-year penalty and the general escalation pattern since Ellsberg, unverified as an absolute, universal claim.