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While the law hasn't changed, the prosecution policy has. USG had not charged the NYT, WP etc. with criminal publication of the Pentagon Papers, and of the many
by danarmak 6y ago
While the law hasn't changed, the prosecution policy has. USG had not charged the NYT, WP etc. with criminal publication of the Pentagon Papers, and of the many leaked classified data published before and since. A consistent change in the policy (prosecuting the NYT and its individual journalists and editors, and not just Assange) would have a huge impact on politics. An inconsistent change, successfully prosecuting but only charging the journalists that the current government finds inconvenient, would have a different but also huge impact.
- evgen 6y agoThis argument does not address the conspiracy to commit computer intrusion charge. Please provide examples of the NYT, WP et al sending reporters out to do this and not being charged.
- danarmak 6y agoThat's a separate matter, which shouldn't affect what I wrote.
- tssva 6y agoThe USG has threatened to prosecute both the NYT, WP and others in the past under both Democrat and Republican administrations. What has prevented it in the past has been the potential political fallout. I imagine that Assange taking active steps to help gather the classified information instead of just publishing material gathered independently and leaked is what changed the math in this case.