Ellsberg Charged With Espionage (1973)

Wed Jan 03, 1973

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Image: Daniel Ellsberg, co-defendant in the Pentagon Papers case, talks to media outside the Federal Building in Los Angeles on April 28th, 1973. Photo credit Wally Fong, AP [nbcnews.com]

On this day in 1973, American whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg was charged with violating the Espionage Act for releasing the Pentagon Papers, carrying a maximum sentence of 115 years. Due to state misconduct, the charges were dismissed.

Daniel Ellsberg is an American economist, activist and former United States military analyst who, while employed by the RAND Corporation, precipitated a national political controversy in 1971 when he released the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret Pentagon study of the U.S. government decision-making in relation to the Vietnam War.

The Pentagon Papers revealed, among other things, that Lyndon B. Johnson had repeatedly lied about the nature of American involvement in Vietnam and that the United States had been undermining Vietnamese autonomy continuously since the Truman administration.

Due to governmental misconduct and illegal evidence-gathering, Daniel Ellsberg was dismissed of all charges on May 11th, 1973.