June Washington Memo

We mark grim anniversaries in the war on whistleblowers.

As a sustainer or paid Substack subscriber, we are offering you a special monthly Washington Memo. Straight from the desk of our esteemed policy director Chip Gibbons, it will offer you insights into what’s happening in Washington when it comes to defending your right to know and freedom to act. As always, we deeply appreciate your support. It makes our work possible.

June contains a number of important anniversaries for press freedom and whistleblowers. It was on June 15, 1917 that Congress passed the draconian Espionage Act. Initially, the Espionage was used to imprison World War I dissenters, but when the New York Times on June 13, 1971 began publishing stories based on the Pentagon Papers the law took on new life. The Nixon Administration sought to use the Espionage Act to enjoin the New York Times from publishing. They also brought Espionage Act charges against Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony Russo for helping to liberate the secret history of the Vietnam War. On June 26, 1971, the Supreme Court ruled the Nixon administration could not block the media from publishing the Pentagon Papers. Yet, the Supreme Court remained silent on whether the New York Times and other papers could be prosecuted after the fact for having published them. And the prosecution of Ellsberg and Russo went forward until enough of Nixon’s dirty tricks were revealed to make it impossible to continue. Although Ellsberg and Russo were free, the Espionage Act remained ready to use against whistleblowers--and maybe even publishers.