There was a willful communication, transfer, or receipt of the information or.The accused acted with the intent or reason to believe the information will harm the United States or help a foreign nation (not necessarily an "enemy" of the United States) and.Information transmitted is classified government information or relates to national defense and.
prosecutors to prove the following elements:
Generally, an espionage conviction requires U.S. Instead, the government only had to show that Manning had (or should have had) reason to believe the information she shared could have harmed U.S. prosecutors were not required to prove her intent to harm the United States. Although Manning insists her intention was to expose sensitive government information as a whistleblower, claiming it weighed heavily on her conscience, U.S. The Elements of an Espionage OffenseĪs the Manning case illustrates, even those who leak or share sensitive government information without the intention of harming the United States still may be found guilty of espionage. While it may not seem like espionage in the classic sense, the petitioner's conviction was upheld as a violation of the Espionage Act. Supreme Court unanimously held that the distribution of flyers urging draft-age men to resist military induction was not protected by the First Amendment. But while there have been many First Amendment challenges to the Espionage Act since its passage, it has remained largely intact. The Sedition Act was passed the following year, reinforcing the Espionage Act by prohibiting the issuance of false statements intended to disrupt the war effort, in addition to broad provisions that were eventually overturned (such as the banning of "disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language" about the U.S.).Ĭongress repealed the Sedition Act in 1921 due to its heavy-handed suppression of free speech. military interests or aid its enemies, punishable by 20 years in prison and a $20,000 fine. This law prohibited the sharing of information intended to disrupt U.S. In 1917, soon after the United States formally entered World War I, Congress passed the Espionage Act. interests, but violations of the law can take many forms. The federal crime of espionage is generally intended to punish those who share sensitive information that would be harmful to U.S. Ultimately, Manning was convicted on 21 federal charges related to the massive leak, including six counts of violating the federal Espionage Act (found in chapter 37 of the U.S. From there, much of this information was widely reported by the press. Manning said she found much of the information in these documents "profoundly troubling" so, believing she was acting as a whistleblower, she leaked the files through the WikiLeaks platform in 2010. There were more than 700,000 files in all and they revealed higher than reported civilian deaths and other unsettling details. base at Guantanamo Bay, and various military reports. They included diplomatic correspondences, files from the U.S. Chelsea Manning (born Bradley Manning) was a private in the United States Army with access to classified and otherwise sensitive government documents.
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