[Washington Post] Walter Pincus - The federal judge who last week refused to throw out charges of conspiring to violate the 1917 Espionage Act against two former pro-Israel lobbyists simultaneously made it much more difficult for the government to prove its case against them, attorneys for the defendants and First Amendment advocates contend. In his Aug. 10 opinion, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III said the law is constitutional. But for the government to prove its case, he ruled, it must show that the two men disclosed national defense information "closely held by the government" and that each "had bad faith purpose" in passing it to others, knowing it "could be potentially damaging to the United States" or be "useful to an enemy of the United States."
2006-08-21 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive