U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib introduced legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday to limit the scope of the Espionage Act from use against whistleblowers, journalists and publishers.
The bill seeks to establish the Daniel Ellsberg Press Freedom and Whistleblower Protection Act, named after the whistleblower who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971 and was subsequently charged under the Espionage Act, though he was not found guilty of those charges.
“Alerting the public to government wrongdoing is not a crime,” the Detroit Democrat said in a press release from her office. “The Espionage Act has been abused by administrations of both parties to target whistleblowers and journalists for sharing critically important information with the public. With whistleblowers, journalists, and civil liberties under significant attack and government decision-making shrouded in increasing secrecy, reining in the abuses of the Espionage Act could not be more urgent.”
The press release also detailed how the bill would address those concerns — first by limiting the scope of the Espionage Act to government employees with a legal duty to protect classified information and foreign agents. The bill’s text also adds language to only include “willful”.
Additionally, the bill would seek to create better due process standards by “creating an affirmative public interest defense and requiring the government prove that a defendant acted with the specific intent to harm the United States or...
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