4 ms·
No, it can't. He signed a bunch of documents where he promised to not disclose anything. He was perfectly aware that he was violating those agreements as well
by WhoBeI 10y ago
No, it can't.
He signed a bunch of documents where he promised to not disclose anything. He was perfectly aware that he was violating those agreements as well as probably both civil and military law.
Regardless of how important an impact the release had he's still a traitor to the US. No number of "privacy is an illusion" rulings will change that.
I presume that capital punishment is an option for traitors which makes getting of the hacking charge a minor thing anyways.
- nxzero 10y agoNo law legally is able to force anyone to not disclose illegal acts. In the case of Snowden, question is if the acts disclosed were illegal.
- ikeboy 10y agoIt's clear that not everything disclosed was illegal under US law, there's no real case to be made that it was.
- monocasa 10y agoNot everything disclosed in the Pentagon Papers was illegal either. If the requirement is that everything in the disclosure needs to be illegal, then whistleblowing is de facto illegal.
- ikeboy 10y agoReleasing the Pentagon papers was illegal, but Ellsberg's prosecutors messed up, violated the law in a number of ways themselves, so he got off. The way to whistleblow legally is either to carefully go over the material and only release parts that are illegal, or report it to the higher authorities instead of the public.
- dredmorbius 10y agoThe TFA case concerns 4th amendment rights against self-incrimination. Snowden's case isn't a 4th amendment case. Therefor, precedent, if any (and Reilly seems to specifically trump the judge's decision) wouldn't apply. Snowden's various NSA oaths are supersceded by his oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. Which he did.