Michael Barone: More than all past presidents, Obama uses 1917 Espionage Act to go after reporters

[Geee]

Washington Examiner:

There is one problem with the entirely justified if self-interested media squawking about the Justice Department snooping into the phone records of multiple Associated Press reporters and Fox News' James Rosen.

The problem is that what the AP reporters and Rosen did arguably violates the letter of the law.

The search warrant in the Rosen case cites Section 793(d) of Title 18 of the U.S. Code.

Section 793(d) says that a person lawfully in possession of information that the government has classified as secret who turns it over to someone not lawfully entitled to possess it has committed a crime. That might cover Rosen's source.

Section 793(g) is a conspiracy count that says that anyone who conspires to help the source do that has committed the same crime. That would be the reporter.

[Valin]

@Geee

 

 

Presidents and attorneys general of both parties have been reluctant to use the Espionage Act when secret information has been leaked to the press because they have recognized that it is overbroad.

They have understood, as Moynihan argues in "Secrecy," that government classifies far too many things as secrets, even as it has often failed to protect information that truly needs to stay secret.

Barack Obama and his Justice Department seem to be of a different mind..........

 

 

Now there's a shocking revelation!

You mix Progressive ideology with Chicago style politics add in 2 cups of hubris and a cup of incompetence, a dash if self-righteousness simmer for 45 minutes and do do you have? A nice big bowl of Scandalpalooza.

[Draggingtree]

May 27, 2013 12:00 AM

Obama and the 1917 Espionage Act
The president uses the overly broad and little-used WWI-era law to go after reporters.

ByMichael Barone

There is one problem with the entirely justified if self-interested media squawking about the Justice Department’s snooping into the phone records of multiple Associated Press reporters and Fox News’s James Rosen.

The problem is that what the AP reporters and Rosen did arguably violates the letter of the law.

The search warrant in the Rosen case cites Section 793(d) of Title 18 of the U.S. Code. Section 793(d) says that a person lawfully in possession of information that the government has classified as secret who turns it over to someone not lawfully entitled to posses it has committed a crime. That might cover Rosen’s source.

Section 793(g) is a conspiracy count that says that anyone who conspires to help the source do that has committed the same crime. That would be the reporter.

http://nationalreview.com/article/349372/obama-and-1917-espionage-act