Yes, Publishing #NSA Secrets Is a Crime

From Marc Thiessen, at the Washington Post:

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) sparked a firestorm last week with his suggestion that Glenn Greenwald, the Guardian reporter who exposed the National Security Agency’s terrorist surveillance activities, ought to be arrested before he can publish more U.S. secrets.

Greenwald responded that King wanted to prosecute him for “the crime of doing journalism.” Wrong. Greenwald’s crime is violating 18 USC § 798, which makes it a criminal act to publish classified information revealing government cryptography or communications intelligence.

The law is absolutely clear. It states: “Whoever knowingly and willfully communicates, furnishes, transmits, or otherwise makes available to an unauthorized person, or publishes, or uses in any manner prejudicial to the safety or interest of the United States or for the benefit of any foreign government to the detriment of the United States any classified information— (1) concerning the nature, preparation, or use of any code, cipher, or cryptographic system of the United States or any foreign government; or (2) concerning the design, construction, use, maintenance, or repair of any device, apparatus, or appliance used or prepared or planned for use by the United States or any foreign government for cryptographic or communication intelligence purposes; or (3) concerning the communication intelligence activities of the United States or any foreign government; or (4) obtained by the processes of communication intelligence from the communications of any foreign government, knowing the same to have been obtained by such processes— Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.”

Note that emphasis, which I added: The law specifically states that publishing, not just divulging, such information is a federal crime. Greenwald clearly violated this law (as did The Post, for that matter, when it published classified details of the NSA’s PRISM program).

As a matter of prosecutorial discretion, the Justice Department may choose not to charge The Post or Greenwald for these criminal acts. But it is neither outrageous nor incorrect for Peter King to state that they are criminal acts. Nor is it unreasonable for a federal lawmaker to argue that federal law should be enforced.

Continue reading.

I'm sure Greenwald's getting a good laugh out of this, but still, the law's the law. Maybe he should come back to the U.S. and take his chances?