Nine Leak-Related Cases

By CHARLIE SAVAGE

Published: June 20, 2012

Leaks were rarely prosecuted before the Obama administration, which has already brought twice as many such cases than all previous presidential administrations combined. 

Prosecuted in Previous Administrations

Daniel Ellsberg

1973

CASE A defense analyst accused of leaking the Pentagon Papers, a secret history of the Vietnam War.

DISPOSITION A federal judge dismissed the case.

Samuel Loring Morison

1985

CASE A naval intelligence analyst accused of providing satellite photographs of a Soviet shipbuilding facility to Jane’s Defence Weekly.

DISPOSITION Mr. Morison was convicted by a jury and sentenced to two years in prison, though he was later paroled. President Bill Clinton pardoned him.

Lawrence Franklin

2005

CASE A Pentagon analyst accused of leaking information about United States policy toward Iran to lobbyists for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

DISPOSITION Mr. Franklin pleaded guilty and was sentenced to about 12 years in prison, which was later reduced to 10 months of community confinement.

Prosecuted During the Obama Administration

Shamai Leibowitz

2009

CASE A former F.B.I. contract linguist accused of disclosing classified information to a blogger.

DISPOSITION Mr. Leibowitz pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 20 months in prison.

Stephen Jin-Woo Kim

2010

CASE An analyst at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory accused of leaking information about North Korea to Fox News.

DISPOSITION Mr. Kim has pleaded not guilty and has not yet gone on trial.

Thomas Drake

2010

CASE A former official at the National Security Agency accused of leaking information about waste and mismanagement to The Baltimore Sun and charged with unlawful retention of secrets.

DISPOSITION Prosecutors dropped the felony charges as part of a deal in which Mr. Drake pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. He was sentenced to one year of probation and community service.

Bradley Manning

2010

CASE An Army intelligence analyst accused of leaking archives of military and diplomatic files to the anti-secrecy organization WikiLeaks.

DISPOSITION Private Manning is facing a court-martial.

Jeffrey Sterling

2010

CASE A former C.I.A. official accused of leaking information about an effort to sabotage Iranian nuclear research to James Risen for a chapter in his book “State of War.”

DISPOSITION Mr. Sterling pleaded not guilty. The Justice Department is appealing several of the judge’s pretrial rulings about evidentiary issues, saying they effectively terminated the case.

John Kiriakou

2012

CASE A former C.I.A. official accused of leaking information about the identity of agency officials involved in its rendition and interrogation of terrorism suspects.

DISPOSITION Mr. Kiriakou has pleaded not guilty.

A version of this article appeared in print on June 20, 2012, on page A14 of the New York edition with the headline: Nine Leak-Related Cases.