Congress passed the Espionage Act to strengthen the U.S. war effort in 1917. An earlier draft of the law would have allowed media censorship, though that section of the law was not part of the final legislation. The Espionage Act made it illegal to interfere in any U.S. war effort and to transmit national defense information, classified or otherwise, to both foreign governments or others who weren’t authorized to have it.
The New York Times started publishing the Pentagon Papers, a 7,000-page study that showed how the U.S. government had mishandled the war in Vietnam. Ellsberg, a U.S. intelligence worker, had painstakingly photocopied each page. He faced more than 100 years in prison time, but the case was dropped because the Nixon administration was caught illegally wiretapping Ellsberg, as well as stealing private notes from his psychiatrist whom he had sought to help deal with the extreme anxiety he developed regarding his potential prosecution.
Samuel Morison was a former American intelligence employee charged with sending confidential satellite images of Soviet nuclear-powered aircraft carriers to a military defense magazine. The U.S. government did not claim that Morison's actions had hurt U.S. interests, only that further disclosures might eventually benefit the Soviet Union. Morison was convicted on two counts of espionage and two counts of theft of government property on Oct. 17, 1985 and was sentenced to two years in prison on Dec. 4, 1985. President Clinton pardoned Morison on Jan. 20, 2001, despite CIA opposition.
Lawrence Franklin was a US Department of Defense employee who pressed for a "harder line" on Iranian diplomatic policy. Frank passed classified documents concerning U.S. policy towards Iran to the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), who then passed the information to Israel. A federal grand jury indicted Franklin on five charges of violating the Espionage Act. He pled guilty and in Jan. 2006, was sentenced to 13 years of prison, which were later reduced to ten months house arrest.
Thomas Drake, a high-level NSA executive, was upset about abuses at his place of employment. So Drake "leaked" unclassified information to a reporter who gave a voice to Drake's complaints about wrongdoing at the NSA. Drake wasn't convicted for espionage, but he was prosecuted for misusing the NSA's computer network. Luckily for Drake, that only counted as a misdemeanor.
Leibowitz worked as a Hebrew translator for the FBI. Upon coming across Israelian correspondence indicating that Israel was attempting to complicate U.S. and Iranian relations, Leibowitz leaked the information to a blogger. Leibowitz received 20 months in prison.
Private Bradley Manning was charged with numerous violations of the Espionage Act for his disclosure of more than 700,000 classified state department cables and government documents to WikiLeaks. Manning was charged with 22 offenses, including several related to espionage. On Feb. 28, 2013, Manning pleaded guilty to 10 charges. Judge Army Col. Denise Lind found him guilty of 20 of the charges, six of which fell under the Espionage Act. Manning, however, was acquitted of the most serious charge -- aiding the enemy. On Aug. 21, 2013, he was sentenced by Lind to 35 years in prison and was dishonorably discharged.
Stephen Kim, a former senior adviser of intelligence for the State Department's Arms Control Compliance Bureau, was charged with espionage for revealing classified information to a reporter that North Korea could test a nuclear bomb.
Former CIA officer Jeffrey Sterling was charged with espionage for revealing information about Operation Merlin to New York Times reporter James Risen. Operation Merlin was an alleged covert operation from the Clinton Administration used to provide Iran with a flawed design for a nuclear weapon that would have delayed the alleged Iranian nuclear weapons program.
John Kiriakou, a former CIA officer, was charged with espionage for leaking information to a reporter about CIA involvement in so-called "enhanced" interrogation techniques used on Guantanamo inmates and others in US military captivity, specifically waterboarding. On April 5, 2012 he was indicted with one count of violating the Intelligence Identities Protection Act, three counts of violating the Espionage Act, and one count of making false statements for allegedly lying to the Publications Review Board of the CIA. Kiriakou was convicted of violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act and sentenced to 30 months in prison on January 25, 2013. He reported to the low-security federal correctional facility in Loretto, Pennsylvania to begin serving his term on February 28, 2013. He was not, however, convicted for espionage.
James Hitselberger, a former Navy linguist, worked as an Arabic translator for the United States Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, engaging in counterterrorism and special reconnaissance missions. He allegedly copied documents that revealed gaps within U.S. intelligence concerning Bahrain. He was subsequently charged with violating the Espionage Act for providing classified documents to the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Hitselberger is currently under home detention at his aunt's residence in Arlington, Va.
Former CIA employee Edward Snowden leaked details of top secret U.S. and British government mass domestic and international surveillance programs, including PRISM and Tempora, to the press. Snowden's identity was made public by The Guardian newspaper at his request soon after.
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