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Before Trump’s crackdown on leaks, Obama went after 10 leakers, journalists

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President Donald Trump’s crackdown on government leaks reached new heights Friday when Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced aggressive investigations by the Justice Department while raising the possibility of going after journalists that publish those leaks.

The Freedom of the Press Foundation criticized Sessions’ announcement, which also renewed debate about the public value of leaks and their effect on national security, but it is hardly the first time a White House has gone after leakers or the journalists who publish highly guarded information.

President Barack Obama, in fact, set a record for any president with his number of prosecutions against leakers using the Espionage Act. Some observers fear that Obama’s crackdown on leaks paved the way for Trump to do the same.

Here are 10 people that fell under leak investigations during Obama’s presidency:

Thomas Drake

Drake was a National Security Agency executive before he was indicted in April 2010 under the Espionage Act for allegedly leaking information about TrailBlazer, one of several surveillance programs used by the agency. Drake eventually pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and avoided prison.

Shamai Leibowitz

Leibowitz was an FBI linguist before pleading guilty in May 2010 to leaking national security information to a blogger. Leibowitz was sentenced to 20 months in prison.

Chelsea Manning (formerly Bradley Manning)

Manning was an Army intelligence analyst who was arrested and charged in June 2010 in connection with one of the largest leaks ever of U.S. State Department documents. In July 2013, Manning was convicted to a prison sentence of 35 years, a sentence Obama commuted before he left office.

Manning spent seven years in prison and was released in May.

Stephen Kim

Kim was a state department contractor before he was indicted in August 2010 for leaking information about North Korea to a Fox News reporter, James Rosen. Kim pleaded guilty and in 2014, he was sentenced to 13 months in prison.

James Rosen

Rosen, a Fox News journalist, reported in 2009 that U.S. officials feared North Korea would respond to United Nations sanctions with nuclear tests, The Washington Post wrote at the time. Stephen Kim was suspected to be his source, so the Justice Department obtained Rosen’s phone records and emails to make that connection.

Rosen was not charged with a crime.

Jeffrey Sterling

Sterling was a CIA officer before he was arrested and charged in 2011 with leaking information about U.S. efforts to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program to a reporter for The New York Times, James Risen. Four years later, Sterling was convicted on espionage charges and was sentenced to 42 months in prison.

James Risen

Risen was first ordered to testify in the Justice Department’s case against Sterling as early as 2008 at the end of the George W. Bush administration, The Times reported. Risen spent the next seven years, mostly during the Obama administration, fighting the Justice Department and vowing to go to prison before revealing his source.

The legal battle ended finally in 2015 when Attorney General Eric Holder said Risen would not be forced to testify in the case.

John Kiriakou

Kiriakou, a former CIA officer, was charged in 2012 with disclosing information to reporters about the capture and interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, a suspected Al Qaeda member. Kiriakou pleaded guilty later that year and was then sentenced to 30 months in prison.

Donald Sachtleben

Sachtleben was a former FBI agent who pleaded guilty in 2013 to leaking classified information about to journalists about a foiled bomb plot in Yemen, The New York Times reported. Sachtleben was sentenced to more than three years in prison.

Edward Snowden

Snowden is the notorious NSA contractor who leaked information to journalists about the agency’s massive surveillance programs in 2013. Snowden was charged with three felonies — one count for theft of government property and two for disclosing that information. Snowden fled the U.S. and to this day remains in asylum in Russia.

Sessions on Friday said the Justice Department was investigating three times as many complaints about leaks as there were at the end of Obama’s term. Sessions did not say exactly how many leaks it was investigating, but within the first six months of Trump’s presidency, his administration had arrested and charged its first leaker.

Reality Winner, an NSA contractor, was charged in June with leaking intelligence reports to The Intercept about Russia’s hacking attempts in the 2016 election. Her trial is set for October.


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