Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Not all heroes wear capes.

Joe Lieberman disappointingly reemerged to remind us that he’s still alive.

Today’s GOP: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

I was promised a recession.

They fucked up the fucking up of the fuckup!

We’ll be taking my thoughts and prayers to the ballot box.

T R E 4 5 O N

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

The most dangerous place for a black man in America is in a white man’s imagination.

Republican obstruction dressed up as bipartisanship. Again.

Republicans choose power over democracy, every day.

“woke” is the new caravan.

Make the republican party small enough to drown in a bathtub.

Second rate reporter says what?

Republicans don’t want a speaker to lead them; they want a hostage.

Let’s delete this post and never speak of this again.

The revolution will be supervised.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

Bark louder, little dog.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

No one could have predicted…

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Fuck the extremist election deniers. What’s money for if not for keeping them out of office?

A thin legal pretext to veneer over their personal religious and political desires

You are here: Home / Healthcare / COVID-19 Coronavirus / Information As Power / Good News: Reality Winner Is Out of Prison

Good News: Reality Winner Is Out of Prison

by | 126 Comments

This post is in: ,

Long overdue, IMO. She did the right thing, and paid a heavy price for it. Best wishes to her and her family, and bad cess to her enemies, including the ‘journalist’ Winner mistook for an ally.


Refresher:

… Winner was the first person to be prosecuted by President Donald Trump’s administration for leaking sensitive government information. She had pleaded guilty to sending to the news media a top-secret National Security Agency report about Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

The former Air Force translator worked as a contractor at a National Security Agency office in Augusta, where she printed a classified report and left the building with it tucked into her garments. Winner told the FBI she mailed the document to an online news outlet.

Authorities never identified the news organization. But the Justice Department announced Winner’s June 2017 arrest the same day The Intercept reported on a secret NSA document. It detailed Russian government efforts to penetrate a Florida-based supplier of voting software and the accounts of election officials ahead of the 2016 presidential election. The NSA report was dated May 5, the same as the document Winner had leaked…

The government prosecuted Winner under the Espionage Act, a World War I-era law aimed at spies.

An affidavit by FBI agent Justin Garrick said the government found out about the leaked documents from the news outlet that received them. He said the agency that housed the report was able to identify six people — including Winner — who had made copies of the report…

Coincidence, but…

Reader Interactions

126Comments

  1. 1.

    Baud

    Although I’m pleased on principle, I don’t know anything about her and hope she’s still not in the thrall of the people who betrayed her. One would think not, but then one remembers the GOP base.

  3. 3.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    She should sue “The Intercept” for emotional distress. She trusted them and they betrayed her.

  5. 5.

    Cheryl Rofer

    The lesson is that if you want to be a whistleblower, check out your legal options. There are law foundations that will help you and represent you.

    Don’t send random documents to Glem.

  6. 6.

    Mary G

    Like Kay said in the last thread, I am so glad to see this happen, because she made the mistake of thinking the Intercept does journalism and paid a big price for releasing things that should’ve been publicized whether Moscow Mitch participated or not.

    O/T Tom and Lorenzo have a lovely little piece in Philadelphia Magazine about living through the pandemic there:

    Our nephew was visiting with his mother one summer when he noticed the many cosplaying tour guides in their breeches, buckle shoes and tricorn hats. With all the conspiratorial seriousness a five-year-old can muster, he asked with concern, “Mom, why are there so many pirates here?” We once heard a little girl address her tour guide, who was in full Betsy drag, complete with the ruffled “mob cap” women wore in Colonial times, as “Mrs. Claus.” There are much more dignified ways to look at the importance and privilege of living in a historically significant area, but to us, it’s always been the place where Mrs. Claus and the pirates hang out every summer.

    Still, we’ve had a somewhat complicated relationship with tourists over the years. We have hometown pride; we consider it our duty to be friendly and accommodating to any visitors we encounter. We’ve had the pleasure of seeing people from all over the world discover the charm of our cobblestones and our Ben Franklin impersonators. But there’s no denying the recurring sense that when it comes to a certain strain of American tourist, gay couples like us likely wouldn’t receive the same polite consideration if our roles were reversed. We moved here just before 9/11, and in the decades since, patriotic symbols were (re)weaponized as the country grew increasingly polarized and partisan. We first encountered the more conservatively patriotic type of tourists at the height of the Freedom Fries/“You’re either with us or against us” era, then kept meeting them anew through the embarrassing weirdness of the Tea Party years and, in the last few summers before lockdown, as they donned MAGA hats.

  7. 7.

    Baud

    The Intercept reported on a secret NSA document. It detailed Russian government efforts to penetrate a Florida-based supplier of voting software and the accounts of election officials ahead of the 2016 presidential election.

    Did The Intercept ever run the story? That Trump was lying about Russia’s interference.

  8. 8.

    Gin & Tonic

    Flame me, but she broke the law and went to prison for it. Of course, Greenwald is an asshole, and The Intercept’s opsec was laughable, but the basic facts are not in dispute.

  10. 10.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    @Baud: ​
      If I was Judge Judy or Judge Reinhold, I would rule this wasn’t a garden variety act. “The Intercept Informants” insist they didn’t turn her in, but instead accidentally revealed her identity. A news organization has a high duty to protect their source, which is why many states have shield laws, not just to protect the outlet but to prevent the chilling of public disclosure by anonymous sources. By their reckless act, they breached this standard.

  13. 13.

    KsSteve

    Consider the absurdity of Winner being convicted under the Espionage Act.  She didn’t reveal information to an enemy that could use it against our national interests. Her intent let was to let the American people know  that our election was being subverted by a  foreign power.  Evidently we are considered the enemy that must be kept in the dark.

  14. 14.

    Mary G

    Interesting:

    Rep. Greene: “I have made a mistake and it’s really bothered me for a couple of weeks now. And so I definitely want to own it … The Holocaust is — there’s nothing comparable to it. It happened and, you know, over 6 million Jewish people were murdered.” pic.twitter.com/wiBQvFGrQ5— Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) June 14, 2021

  15. 15.

    Chetan Murthy

    @KsSteve: Indeed.  Gin and Tonic is right, that she broke the law.  In one of the likely timelines we might live in, come 4 years, we’ll all be breaking laws right-and-left, breaking national security laws, in order to defend our Republic.

    If more patriots had done as she had, during the Mango Menace’s Reign of Error, maybe we wouldn’t be looking at that.  Probably not.

    But quite simply: when The Enemy owns all the major organs of State Power, No Shit, to fight back, you will end up committing crimes.

    No shit.

    P.S. A hidebound adherence to legalism will just lead to a cattle car.  It didn’t protect Jewish Germans (and Europeans) and it won’t protect us.

    P.P.S. And until I see massive numbers of these bastards doing hard fucking time, I won’t believe that we can merely rely on The Law.

  18. 18.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    @Mary G:   Shorter MTG:  some donors are holding back contributions to the RNC until I apologize.

  19. 19.

    Elizabelle

    @Omnes Omnibus:   I’ll bite.  What in particular from Thoreau?

    Must confess:  I don’t think I have ever read a word of his.  Save for the occasional aphorism.

  20. 20.

    Mike in NC

    I long to see Trump and his criminal children all wearing matching orange jumpsuits labeled “INMATE”.

  23. 23.

    guachi

    Winner did the wrong thing and deserved to go to jail. My sympathy for her is zero.

  24. 24.

    James E Powell

    @Mary G:

    The people in charge must have had a serious talk with her. A person who says things about Jewish people like she did doesn’t suddenly change her ways after a trip to the museum. This was a stunt and I expect the press/media to treat like a good faith change of heart.

    Someone mentioned that the Rs need to clear her up before they launch the full on “Democrats are anti-semites!” attack where all Democrats will be required to denounce Ilhan Omar once a week.

  25. 25.

    Chetan Murthy

    @Gin & Tonic: I have no idea what you’re talking about.  But for sure one thing: we’re not going to go, the way the Jews did, if they come to take us away.  We’ll kill as many of them as we can, destroy as much as we can, on our way down.

  26. 26.

    James E Powell

    @guachi:

    I’m not disagreeing with you, but I would like to know:

    Was her situation different from Daniel Ellsberg’s?

    Was there something she could have done that would have stayed within the law but got the information out?

    Was her only choice to do her job and keep her mouth shut?

  29. 29.

    Mary G

    ??? The number of epically whiny 107,000-word blog posts arising from this will be massive:

    I have just learned that Facebook in Hungary and Romania has banned discussion of me and my book LIVE NOT BY LIES. I’ve seen the warnings to local journalists. Let the reader understand what is happening.— Rod Dreher (@roddreher) June 14, 2021

    Andrew Sullivan will chime in at length on his substack, I’m sure. Both of them went way off the rails during TFG’s term.

  35. 35.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @Elizabelle: Thoreau is a terrible writer (IMO) and I don’t agree with all of his ideas, but both Gandhi and MLK found him to be an important thinker on the topic.

  38. 38.

    mrmoshpotato

    @Mary G: Oops!  We’ve all made similar comparisons. /S

    Why is she suddenly apologetic about the horrible shit she’s been vomiting up?

    ETA – Whose GOP donors read them the riot act?

  39. 39.

    trollhattan

    Coming soon: 1012,000 words from Glem on how this is another failure of American justice while the crucifixion of Julian Assange continues apace. Plus, she’s, you know, a girl.

  40. 40.

    Elizabelle

    It is tragic that Reality Winner’s sacrifice was for naught.  TFG gamed the system, and rode out a full term.  Americans did deserve to be warned.

    Wondering what else the intelligence community knows, that might dribble out in years to come.

  44. 44.

    Spanky

    @mrmoshpotato:

    Why is she suddenly apologetic about the horrible shit she’s been vomiting up?

    Someone pointed out that her paycheck is signed “Adelson”.

  47. 47.

    Butter Emails

    @debbie:

    I’d guess his high profile given the Snowden case made him seem trustworthy and capable of keeping her secure.

  49. 49.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Mary G: They also did a great Pride segment on Rachel Harlow, a Transgender society girl who was one of the pioneers of the Ballroom scene, opened several restaurants in Philly and publicly dated Grace Kelly’s brother Jack, in the 70’s.  They talked about her on last week’s podcast episode.  Sounds like a pretty extraordinary woman.

  50. 50.

    Dan B

    @Gin & Tonic: It was against the law for me to have sex with the people – men – I was attracted to for much of my young adult years.

    It was against the law for two people of different races to marry until the year I started college.

    It was against the law for black people to use the public swimming pool or go to the white school when we lived in Arkansas.

    It was against the law to release the Pentagon Papers.

     

    The law can be in violation of democracy and justice.  Should every crime on the books be prosecuted?

  51. 51.

    WaterGirl

    @Mary G: She must have gotten some really bad polling on that issue.  Either that or one of her high dollar donors was pissed as hell and dumped her.

    She doesn’t care in the least about truth.

    edit: I see that you got there first at #18, and said it better than i did.

    edit 2: You and about 25 other people.  Balloon Juice in array!

  52. 52.

    Gin & Tonic

    @Dan B: Daniel Ellsberg voluntarily surrendered and said “I am prepared to answer for all the consequences of my decision.”

  53. 53.

    Mary G

    I am a very happy camper today – the massive plumbing project and electrical upgrades to my 71-year-old bathroom have been completed and passed the city’s inspection. The tile guy just left after our consultation and tomorrow the prettyfication begins.

  55. 55.

    Mary G

    I am just sorry Reality Winner wasn’t smart enough to realize that going to Snowden’s guys was a terrible idea and that she had instead contacted the attorney who represented the whistleblower who told on Trump’s Ukrainian extortion. We still don’t know who he or she was and whether they suffered any consequences. I like to think they are just working along at their chosen job somewhere besides TFG’s administration and quietly writing a tell-all book.

  62. 62.

    Mary G

    Opinion | Marjorie Taylor Greene visited the Holocaust Museum. So why won’t liberals visit the Creationist Museum?— New York Times Pitchbot (@DougJBalloon) June 14, 2021

  63. 63.

    Geminid

    @Butter Emails: Ms. Winner was naive. Mr. Greenwalt made a big reputation for publishing material handed to him by Edward Snowden. But by the time Winner decided to blow the whistle on matters relating to trump’s relations with Russia, knowing people saw what is now apparant to anyone who pays attention: Greenwalt is actually or constructively a Russian agent. Winner walked into a spider’s web, and the spider blew her cover.

  64. 64.

    Dan B

    @Gin & Tonic: Another couple questions.

    Have you ever committed a crime which would have resulted in punishment from the justice system?

    How many Jackals have, by your estimate?

  65. 65.

    CaseyL

    @Mary G:

    Greene:

    The Holocaust is — there’s nothing comparable to it. It happened

     

    Isn’t that almost word for word what she said about 9-11, when she stepped on a rake on that subject? “9-11, it definitely happened.”

    So she has, what, a template for apologizing for things she doesn’t really feel at all bad about?

    What a waste of protoplasm she is.

  66. 66.

    elm

    @debbie: What was reported at the time is she heard him denying Russian interference on a podcast and thought he was not a Russian operative and that she could convince him with evidence.

    Instead, he continued doing his job and claimed her documents were a deep state conspiracy.

  67. 67.

    smith

    Don’t know about the rest of you, but I break the law pretty much every time I drive. More seriously, I’ve broken a number of laws protesting government policies going back to the 60s. It seems to me that when querying the morality of an action, there are a multitude of questions to ask beyond, “Is it legal?”

  69. 69.

    elm

    @debbie: Handing over intelligence on Putin’s election interference to Putin’s agents was, perhaps, worth prosecution.

    On the other hand, the NSA and the rest of the intelligence agencies decided institutions and their habit of secrecy was more important than the American people knowing about the health of US democracy.

  70. 70.

    Benw

    Dan B: ignoring the rest of your points in favor of a story where a cis, white man is the hero is awful. Those laws were designed to erase people like you and the other groups you mention. Braking them was incredibly brave and I see you.

  71. 71.

    dopey-o

    @Dan B:Have you ever committed a crime which would have resulted in punishment from the justice system?

    Was in a meeting when an ex-con asked about his status in the group. An old-timer said “We just didn’t get caught. You’ll fit right in.”

  72. 72.

    Jay

    @elm:

    yup.

    had I been the NSA, the prosecutor or the judge, guilty plea would have resulted in a loss of clearance, and time served.

    The IC still isn’t protecting US Democracy.

  73. 73.

    Dan B

    • @elm: There must be a parable about following the law and losing democracy that would explain how democracy should be subservient to the law, always.
  76. 76.

    elm

    @Dan B: And only some people should be subject to the law. “Family separation”, which was kidnapping and cruelty tantamount to torture under color of law will not be prosecuted.

    The idea that we are mindless slaves to the law or that we cannot advocate for our interests or pressure officials to use their discretion is stupid.

  78. 78.

    Ruckus

    @KsSteve:

    Evidently we are considered the enemy that must be kept in the dark.

    Given who was president and who his best buddy is, this is a valid take on the entire mess, A to Z.

  79. 79.

    Suzanne

    @Mary G: Dude, Rod Dreher isn’t even amusing to point and laugh at anymore. Dude is totally crazy. Not just wrong or immoral. His mental health appears to be terrible.

  81. 81.

    zhena gogolia

    @mrmoshpotato:

    So nice.

    I hate to see all the thumbs-down on their YouTubes. I wish I had time to go around “liking” everything. Clearly there’s an organized campaign to diss them.

  83. 83.

    Joy in FL

    WaterGirl asked me to post about the virtual Southern Town Hall that I attended on June 10.
    They said that over 1,000 people attended. My timing to post about it did not synch with open threads until now; I apologize for the delay.
    I’m going to quote from a follow-up email from Fair Fight Action, because I think it says what is valuable about the town halls:
    “…we heard from Stacey Abrams, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, Congresswoman Nikema Williams, and other special guests about how the most important thing you can do to help protect your freedom to vote—no matter whether you’re a South Carolinian, Texan, or Georgian—is to contact your U.S. Senators and let them know that YOU want them to pass the For the People Act, also known as S 1/HR 1. We need volunteers calling their Senators at 888-453-3211 every single day from now until the end of June….”
    I felt it was good, first-hand information by people who are doing the work and know their localities. You can sign up for the Southwest Town Hall on June 17. You can find it easily by googling ‘mobilize fair fight hot summer,’ which I did to make sure those words would work. You can attend no matter where you live.

  84. 84.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @smith: If you are addressing the point G&T made, you will note that G&T said nothing about the morality of the law or of Winner’s actions.  G&T spoke only of the legality of what she did.  Theorists on civil disobedience offer a variety of opinions on how one should react once one has violated a law out of conscience.  Some say one should follow one’s conscience and then submit to the penalty of the law.  Others say one should argue at trial that the law was unjust and penalties should not apply.  Others will say still other things.  But all will start with the recognition that the state has the right to make and enforce its laws.  Also that individuals have to make moral choices.  And some of those choices have costs.​
    ETA: WRT your driving example, what happens if you get caught? Do you pay the fine?

  87. 87.

    glc

    From our friends at Wikipedia:

    On July 24 or July 25, 1846, Thoreau ran into the local tax collector, Sam Staples, who asked him to pay six years of delinquent poll taxes. Thoreau refused because of his opposition to the Mexican–American War and slavery, and he spent a night in jail because of this refusal. The next day Thoreau was freed when someone, likely to have been his aunt, paid the tax, against his wishes.[6] The experience had a strong impact on Thoreau. In January and February 1848, he delivered lectures on “The Rights and Duties of the Individual in relation to Government”,[45] explaining his tax resistance at the Concord Lyceum. 

    The nice story is that Emerson dropped in to the jail and said “Henry, why are you in there?” To which Thoreau said “Why are you out there?” Mr. Google tells me this is apocryphal, in all its variations. Even so.

    If you’re not into civil disobedience, or whistleblowing, but would like to commit a felony anyway,  sharing a Netflix password outside the household suffices (CFAA).

  88. 88.

    elm

    The only thing to do when one sees one’s government apply punishment unjustly is to observe it did so legally. Once one has recited the fact, no further consideration is needed.

  89. 89.

    Jay

    @Dan B:

    the IC Orgs arn’t democratic, they arn’t supposed to be. But one of their jobs, is supposed to be protecting US Democracy. They are, and they arn’t.

  90. 90.

    Ohio Mom

    [email protected]:

    That tweet!
    “Protesters were hit by a homicidal CAR”?
    Who knew vehicles were sentient?

    On the subject of the post, I’m reminded of Monica Lewinsky, another young woman whose youthful misjudgent derailed her. Somehow Lewinsky found a path forward that is serving her (and the rest of us) well. I hope Winner finds such a path for herself.

  94. 94.

    gene108

    @Gin & Tonic:

    Flame me, but she broke the law and went to prison for it. Of course, Greenwald is an asshole, and The Intercept’s opsec was laughable, but the basic facts are not in dispute.

    I think the sentence was overly harsh. Some punishment needed to be incurred, after she was caught, but five years in prison was overboard.

  95. 95.

    Another Scott

    @gene108: She really wasn’t treated especially harshly.

    Patch.com (from 2019):

    GLEN BURNIE, MD — A former government contractor has been sentenced to nine years in federal prison for willful retention of national defense information after he harbored a massive amount of highly classified documents at his home, two storage sheds and in his vehicle.

    U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett sentenced Harold Thomas Martin, III, age 54, of Glen Burnie, on July 19. After serving nine years in federal prison, Martin will have three years of supervised release. Patch previously reported that Martin is a Navy veteran.

    “Harold Martin was entrusted with some of the nation’s most sensitive information,” said U.S. Assistant Attorney General John C. Demers in a statement. “Instead of respecting the trust given to him by the American people, Martin violated that trust and put our nation’s security at risk. This sentence will hold Mr. Martin accountable for his dangerous and unlawful actions.”

    Note that he didn’t release anything – just removed and kept information without authorization.

    (Like Winner, I suspect he may get time off for good behavior as well.)

    Having access to classified information is not a right. People have to sign very detailed standard forms indicating that they understand the rules and responsibilities before they are given access (if they also have a “need to know”). If someone breaks those rules, then they have to expect that they will suffer consequences. (I won’t repeat my comments from the thread around a month ago.)

    My $0.02.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  97. 97.

    Bill Arnold

    @germy:

    TFG’s birthday..

    Also right before a summit with Mr. Putin, who over the weekend declared yet again that it was preposterous to assert that Russia interfered in US elections or engaged in computer-based espionage. (Paraphrased, loosely.)

  98. 98.

    Yutsano

    @Another Scott:  To wit: I could have accessed someone’s tax returns and released them to the public at any time. Why didn’t I? The consequences would have been very harsh. If you don’t think his DoJ wouldn’t have come after me hard you don’t know that man.

    But I thought about it. Oh man did I think about it…

  99. 99.

    Jay

    @Another Scott:

    thing is, whistleblowing the right way would have seen no consequences, or minimal consequences,

    and probably have been more effective,

    Going to Glem got her burned, and probably pissed off the IC even more,

    She was , well, stupid, the IC, TFG’s AG and the Courts were all seeking vengeance, not justice, for different reasons.

  100. 100.

    Dan B

    @Gin & Tonic: My most dangerous attribute is thinking.

     

    But reading helps.

    As someone who has suffered under the written law but suffered more under unwritten law, I have little love for laws that are prosecuted by humans who carry their prejudices about what citizens may have and what they can be denied.  Life, health, a legal source of income, and the right to know if our government is committing crimes and taking a blind eye to others is among the list of things the laws and people who occupy space in the institutions that administer them have, by their prejudices, denied me and my friends.  I’ve been kicked out of school, been spied on by the FBI, my friends have died while Reagan ignored us, Iran Contra and other CIA operations put despots in power, and more.  If the law cannot bend to keep us safe from Russian interference then what is the use of the law?

  101. 101.

    ian

    @Chetan Murthy:

    Many European Jews did too.  Look at the Warsaw Ghetto, an early center of Anti-Nazi resistance.

    I know you mean well, but you are smearing my ancestors and I ask you to stop.

  102. 102.

    Kay

    @Another Scott:

    That’s an insanely long sentence. The way to stop years and years of incarceration for non-violent offenses is to stop. We incarcerate more people (and longer) than any other developed country. It has to be dialed back.

    They still haven’t told is what happened with Russian interference in congressional races and state voting systems and it has been 5 years. No indictments, no prosecutions, no information at all released to the public. I’m sick of it. I’m sick of being told everything it super top secret classified and yet we never see any effective or conclusive law enforcement or prosecution process at all. I mean, it occurs to me if I wanted to hide inaction or incompetence I could just slap a “secret” label, on everything, forever.

    How’s this investigation coming along? They need another decade to complete it? By the time they finish this one they’ll have interfered in 3 more.

  103. 103.

    glc

    @Another Scott:

    People have to sign very detailed standard forms indicating that they understand the rules and responsibilities before they are given access.

    Indeed – and that, of course, is why sharing your Netflix password is a felony.

  104. 104.

    Another Scott

    @Kay:

    DoJ.gov (from July 2018):

    Grand Jury Indicts 12 Russian Intelligence Officers for Hacking Offenses Related to the 2016 Election

    The Department of Justice today announced that a grand jury in the District of Columbia returned an indictment presented by the Special Counsel’s Office. The indictment charges twelve Russian nationals for committing federal crimes that were intended to interfere with the 2016 U.S. presidential election. All twelve defendants are members of the GRU, a Russian Federation intelligence agency within the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Russian military. These GRU officers, in their official capacities, engaged in a sustained effort to hack into the computer networks of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Democratic National Committee, and the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, and released that information on the internet under the names “DCLeaks” and “Guccifer 2.0” and through another entity.

    “The Internet allows foreign adversaries to attack America in new and unexpected ways,” said Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein. “Together with our law enforcement partners, the Department of Justice is resolute in its commitment to locate, identify and seek to bring to justice anyone who interferes with American elections. Free and fair elections are hard-fought and contentious, and there will always be adversaries who work to exacerbate domestic differences and try to confuse, divide, and conquer us. So long as we are united in our commitment to the shared values enshrined in the Constitution, they will not succeed.”

    […]

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  107. 107.

    Another Scott

    @glc:

    Is Using a Shared Netflix Password a Federal Crime?

    Are the alarmist commentators correct? Ninth Circuit law remains unclear on this point, as there have been no cases specifically involving CFAA prosecutions of password sharing for non-commercial, personal use. That said, there are several factual distinctions between Nosal II and a hypothetical case involving someone being prosecuted under the CFAA for using a borrowed Netflix or HBO Go password. Given these factual distinctions, I speculate that the Ninth Circuit would probably hold that SVOD password sharing does not constitute a criminal violation of the CFAA, at least under the Ninth Circuit’s current interpretation of 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(2)(C).

    OTOH, violation of 18 U.S.C. Section 793(e) is pretty serious:

    (f)Whoever, being entrusted with or having lawful possession or control of any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, note, or information, relating to the national defense, (1) through gross negligence permits the same to be removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of his trust, or to be lost, stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, or (2) having knowledge that the same has been illegally removed from its proper place of custody or delivered to anyone in violation of its trust, or lost, or stolen, abstracted, or destroyed, and fails to make prompt report of such loss, theft, abstraction, or destruction to his superior officer—
    Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.

    FWIW.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  109. 109.

    VeniceRiley

    @Another Scott: This deserves its own front page.  But how would they go about it? The services allow x number of simultaneous devices. Who cares if they’re in your family or household or not?

  110. 110.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @elm: Kay said there had been no indictments.  AS offered info to contradict that statement.  No more, no less.

  112. 112.

    elm

    @Omnes Omnibus: Addressing two words (viz: “no indictments”) out of 152 is dismissive, near useless, and drops the serious concern that US election security remains bad.

    Offering it as if it is a substantive reply is, at best, silly.

  113. 113.

    Kay

    @Another Scott:

    Reality Winner has spent more time in prison than any of the Russian perpetrators will.

     

    With the case set to go to trial next month, prosecutors recommended that the Justice Department drop the charges to preserve national security interests and prevent Russia from weaponizing delicate American law enforcement information, according to the official. The prosecutors also weighed the benefits of securing a guilty verdict against the companies, which cannot be meaningfully punished in the United States, against the risk of exposing national security secrets in order to win in court.

  114. 114.

    elm

    @Kay: It appears the greatest crime in the whole 2016 election interference situation is to (misguidedly — as GG and The Intercept are not good faith actors) attempt to inform the American people of the danger.

  115. 115.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @elm: Well, I am sorry that some of the commenters here do not live up to your high standards.  I am sure that we will all try harder in the future – especially if you can set the bar high by your example.

  116. 116.

    elm

    @Omnes Omnibus: I offer my valuable criticism as you offer yours, though I suppose perhaps comments of substance are gauche. Honest opinion, no more, no less.

  117. 117.

    Kay

    @Another Scott:

    prevent Russia from weaponizing delicate American law enforcement information,

    There it is again- our National Security is getting in the way of our national security again.

    The entire Clinton email bullshit was based on people pretending she was putting Top Secret info at risk, a “concern” that then miraculously disappeared completely and we never heard another word about unsecure communications again. Donald Trump is running around right now telling god knows what to anyone who will listen, hell, he’s probably selling it, and they’re busy destroying these absolute peons?

  118. 118.

    Jay

    @Another Scott:

    performa inciting the Russians years after their successful op,  long after the damage was done,

    while keeping their mouths shut, while the damage was being done, while they watched it in real time.

    while one set/side of the IC was doing what they did to “spy” on Russian Ops, another set should have been informing the President, the House, the Senate, and the Public, not just about elections, but the attack on Society, and of course, exposing the Russian assets in the House and Congress who 6-8 years later, aided and abetted a violent  Coup attempt.

    It’s a bigger epic fail than “Bin Laden determined to strike” or WMD in Iraq”, and now the Russians are buried deep in your Government, Military and Infrastructure.

  119. 119.

    Kay

    @elm:

    Snowden should have turned himself in. They can’t conduct a human rights campaign on his behalf if other people are doing time for the same crimes and they don’t even produce him.

    Among his other failings, Glenn Greenwald is a terrible defense lawyer. His focus is not the defendant, and it shows.

  120. 120.

    Kay

    @elm:

    I find Snowden insufferable, but he was used too. None of them gave a shit about him personally and he got lousy advice. They thought having Putin as his protector would go WELL for his US criminal case? That was a good idea, putting him in the middle of an ongoing low level war between two countries?

    These people need their friends and family members to take care of them. I wouldn’t give my cell phone number to The Intercept, let alone let them run my defense.

  124. 124.

    Ryan

    I sent her a book (to he instructions by Adam Levine) a year or two ago. I hope it got her thru a few days   it’s 1200 pages and a big theme is the moral rightness of damaging a bad system.

  125. 125.

    David ? ☘The Establishment☘? Koch

    Pardoning Steve Bannon who participated in a scheme to defraud Trump’s supporters, while ignoring his supporters’ impassioned appeals for Assange/Snowden pardons… fitting bookend— Michael Tracey (@mtracey) January 20, 2021

    Never mind the pardons. Mitch wouldn’t even let him declassify the JFK or UFO files.— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) January 20, 2021

    Telling how these frauds didn’t care about Reality Winner​

  126. 126.

    Anne Laurie

    @Tim in SF: What is cess?

    It’s politely translated as ‘luck’, these days.

    But when I was growing up… you know the word ‘cesspool’? Well, there’s an old Irish curse:  May you not sh*t for a thousand years, and then may you have diarrhea.

    My peasant ancestors had no faith in ‘luck’, but intestinal problems — those, they could fully appreciate.

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