Is it a crime for a reporter to solicit the disclosure of classified information?

[Someone]

Seriously, it is a crime for a person to request and encourage the disclosure of classified information?

 

Are you spy if you work for a foreign government and are soliciting the disclosure of classified information?

 

Are you a exempt from criminal prosecution if you are a reporter & work for a network and are soliciting the disclosure of classified information?

[BigRedBuster]

Define what you mean by "soliciting"?

[Someone]

Define what you mean by "soliciting"?

http://fpc.state.gov/documents/organization/148793.pdf

See

William E. Lee,

Probing Secrets: The Press and Inchoate Liability for Newsgathering Crimes

, 36 A

M

.

J.

C

RIM

.

L. 129, 132-34 (2009). The solicitation theory relied on a 2008 Supreme Court case finding that solicitation of an

illegal transaction is not speech deserving of First Amendment protection. United States v. Williams, 553 U.S. 285

(2008).

[Someone]

I guess soliciting sort of like asking someone to give you something. Any legal eagles here?

 

My thread was more about the broad concept than any one legal case.

[NUance]

Is it a crime for a reporter to solicit the disclosure of classified information?

Daniel Ellsberg, a RAND military analyst, made copies of the classified Pentagon Papers and released them to a number of people. Eventually, portions of the Pentagon Papers were published in the NY Times and Washington Post. As a result Ellsberg faced charges under the Espionage Act of 1917 carrying a maximum sentence of 115 years. The trial ended in a mistrial due to a number of inappropriate, bungling activities by Nixon flunkies---aka, The Plumbers.

 

But the question goes to whether a *reporter* can get in hot water. I don't think there was any criminal prosecution against the NY Times or Washington Post for the Pentagon Papers. Although the Pentagon Papers situation is not a perfect example for this question. The newspapers did not solicit the information. Nobody in the general public or media knew about the Pentagon Papers until Ellsberg started shopping them around.

 

btw, The Pentagon Papers were declassified a couple years ago. (Whether in their entirety, I don't know.) So you can read them for yourself if you want.

[strigori]

Don't think so. The press exists to keep politicians and the government from hiding everything in the first place. If the only limiting factor was slapping some level of 'secret' on the cover folder things would get pretty damned scary in a hurry. And whistleblower laws are in place to protect the sources from prosecution.

[AR Husker Fan]

It depends (how's that for a typical legal response?). First, you have to define solicitation. Then, you have to examine the circumstances.

 

If you use solicitation in its generally accepted meaning - to ask or request - then no, generally, it's not a crime. If I go to a bank and ask them to give me their money with no threat (implied or expressed), then I'm guilty of nothing other than trying to be opportunistic. If you broaden the meaning of solicitation to include any acts of coercion, bribery, etc., then it can - but criminal statutes don't generally define the term so broadly. There are some exceptions, such as child pornography, on the grounds that the mere soliciation creates a "market" and a "mechanism" for the production of such material. This goes to the circumstances.

 

Put another way - if you are in possession of confidential information and someone solicits you to obtain the information, you can report them to the FBI. However, the FBI won't arrest or prosecute absent some overt act in furtherance of obtaining the material beyond the soliciation.

[BigRedBuster]

A reporter can ask for anything. However, if you have security clearance and have access to secure information and you hand that over to someone like a reporter....you're in trouble.

[Someone]

A reporter can ask for anything. However, if you have security clearance and have access to secure information and you hand that over to someone like a reporter....you're in trouble.

And is the reporter guilty if they posses the information? I can't have classifed documents in my briefcase unless I clearance, even if I am planning to write about them on Huskerboard.com, or can I?

 

“Is it illegal for a reporter to encourage the leaking of classified information by promising a government official anonymity? Is such an agreement a conspiracy?”

 

What is the reporter that keeps asking his or her sources for classified information works for Al Sahab (media organization of Al Qaeda) or just Al Jazeera? Do they have the same rights as a reporter for the AP or Fox News?

 

Here is what a federal Judge said when sentencing a Defense Department official who leaked docs to lobbiest to pass on to reports and a friendly forgein government.

 

Read more here from a University of GA professor.

 

"all persons who have authorized possession of classified information, and persons who have unauthorized possession, who come into possession in an unauthorized way of classified information, must abide by the law. They have no privilege to estimate that they can do more good with it. So, that applies to academics, lawyers, journalists, professors, whatever. They are not privileged to disobey the laws, because we are a country that respects the rule of law, and that's the real significance"

 

"The First Amendment does not confer on reporters or anyone else the right to violate the law in order to get information they consider to be newsworthy, the right to encourage others to do so, or the right to conceal the identity of a source who committed a criminal act in providing the information by refusing to comply with a lawful court order directing the reporter to identify the source. To suggest that these things are protected by the First Amendment, demeans the First Amendment.

-United States District Judge Ernest C. Torres"

[Conga3]

It depends (how's that for a typical legal response?). First, you have to define solicitation. Then, you have to examine the circumstances.

 

If you use solicitation in its generally accepted meaning - to ask or request - then no, generally, it's not a crime. If I go to a bank and ask them to give me their money with no threat (implied or expressed), then I'm guilty of nothing other than trying to be opportunistic. If you broaden the meaning of solicitation to include any acts of coercion, bribery, etc., then it can - but criminal statutes don't generally define the term so broadly. There are some exceptions, such as child pornography, on the grounds that the mere soliciation creates a "market" and a "mechanism" for the production of such material. This goes to the circumstances.

 

Put another way - if you are in possession of confidential information and someone solicits you to obtain the information, you can report them to the FBI. However, the FBI won't arrest or prosecute absent some overt act in furtherance of obtaining the material beyond the soliciation.

More of this please. Post more often you jerk. Don't keep all that knowledge for yourself.

[AR Husker Fan]

It depends (how's that for a typical legal response?). First, you have to define solicitation. Then, you have to examine the circumstances.

 

If you use solicitation in its generally accepted meaning - to ask or request - then no, generally, it's not a crime. If I go to a bank and ask them to give me their money with no threat (implied or expressed), then I'm guilty of nothing other than trying to be opportunistic. If you broaden the meaning of solicitation to include any acts of coercion, bribery, etc., then it can - but criminal statutes don't generally define the term so broadly. There are some exceptions, such as child pornography, on the grounds that the mere soliciation creates a "market" and a "mechanism" for the production of such material. This goes to the circumstances.

 

Put another way - if you are in possession of confidential information and someone solicits you to obtain the information, you can report them to the FBI. However, the FBI won't arrest or prosecute absent some overt act in furtherance of obtaining the material beyond the soliciation.

More of this please. Post more often you jerk. Don't keep all that knowledge for yourself.

I can't. The wisdom of AR Husker Fan is like the sun - too much exposure is more than mere mortals can handle.

[carlfense]

I can't. The wisdom of AR Husker Fan is like the sun - too much exposure is more than mere mortals can handle.

Read my posts, ye mortals, and despair.

[Someone]

I hope the wise ones will address this:

 

What if the reporter that keeps asking his or her sources for classified information works for Al Sahab (media organization of Al Qaeda) or just Al Jazeera? Do they have the same rights as a reporter for the AP or Fox News?

 

Is this the ultimate get out of jail free card for every spy wanting to steal US secrets?

 

[strigori]

There should be a distinct difference between 'national security' reasons and 'job security' reasons for politicians. Too often the later gets mistaken for the former. Details that might be embarrassing are hardly a matter of 'national security'

[Someone]

There should be a distinct difference between 'national security' reasons and 'job security' reasons for politicians. Too often the later gets mistaken for the former. Details that might be embarrassing are hardly a matter of 'national security'

I think there is.

 

If a 'leak' allows the media to expose the fact the US, British & Saudi Intellegence agencies have a double agent deep inside Al Qaeda's #1 bomb making operation and the leak forces the removal of the double agent before the bomb-making leader can be 'taken out', would you consider that to be a 'national security' or a 'job security' issue?