Victory: Government Drops Espionage Charge Against Thomas Drake

by Weldon Kennedy · 2011-06-15 07:20:00 UTC
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Thomas Drake is a former National Security Agency (NSA) employee who was being prosecuted under the Espionage Act for retaining, not leaking, classified information about a data collection program that was costly, threatening to Americans' privacy rights, and wholly undeveloped. He did everything by the book, raising concerns through official channels first - including senior NSA management, the Defense Department's inspector general, and Congress.

His concerns were ignored. Drake started, legally, communicating with a reporter -- never sharing any classified information whatsoever. But the consequences looked to be severe, with prosecutors looking to make him spend the rest of his life in prison. So in response, the Government Accountability Project (GAP) ran an all-out campaign, which included a petition here on Change.org with nearly 5,000 signatures, calling for the charges against Drake to be dropped.

Their efforts, thanks in part to the thousands of Change.org members who signed the petition, payed off.

On June 9, Thomas Drake agreed to a plea bargain arrangement on the charges brought against him by the federal government. While Drake was facing 10 felony counts and 35 years in jail, this settlement agreement stipulates no jail time or fines shall be imposed on him. In return, Drake pled guilty to a mere misdemeanor.

The action taken against Drake by the Department of Justice was widely seen as a bellwether case for the current crop of the Obama administration's prosecutions under the Espionage Act against national security and intelligence whistleblowers. So the news is an absolute victory for whistleblowers.

GAP Homeland Security and Human Rights Director Jesselyn Radack commented, "This is a victory for national security whistleblowers and against corruption inside our intelligence agencies. The prosecution's case was built on sand and crumbled under the weight of the truth.

"Tom Drake went through all proper and legal channels. His experience proves that, presently, there is no safe way to draw attention to wrongdoing at intelligence agencies. The intelligence community cannot keep using a broken classification system to escape responsibility for its internal corruption and lawbreaking."

Radack continued, "No public servant should face 35 years in prison for telling the truth. The prosecution's case imploded in the face of numerous negative rulings and huge public support for Tom Drake. This is incontrovertible proof that the Espionage Act should not and cannot be used to silence whistleblowers."

Regarding the Obama administration's ongoing prosecution of national security whistleblowers, Radack stated "Whistleblowers are not spies. The Espionage Act is a particularly heinous tool that should never be used to cover up government wrongdoing and punish whistleblowers that expose it. This sends a message to the Justice Department to abandon its perverted strategy of prosecuting whistleblowers under the Espionage Act."

Thank you and congratulations to everyone who took part in this campaign.

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Photo Credit: Brian Turner

Weldon Kennedy is a Change.org Director of Organising. He has worked on a variety of issues and elections and spent many years managing campaigns for the London-based ONE.org.

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Demand Accountability for the Selective Prosecution of NSA Whistleblower Tom Drake
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