In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg was charged under the Espionage Act for leaking the Pentagon Papers while working at the Department of Defense as a Rand Corporation contractor. His case set a precedent for whistleblower prosecutions.
*Chart based on date of indictment under 18 U.S. Code § 793. Data current as of 17 March 2025.
Under the Obama administration, the Espionage Act was revived as a weapon against media disclosures. When it became clear that this was a growing trend, Ellsberg helped us launch WHISPeR as a founding board member. Until his passing in 2023, he provided guidance and moral support as we played a central role in pushing back on the use of the Espionage Act in media leak cases.
| Name | Indicted | Affiliation | Charges | WHISPeR Involvement |
| Thomas Drake | Apr 14, 2010 | NSA | Mass surveillance program | Legal representation |
| Chelsea Manning | May 29, 2010 | Army | Wikileaks disclosures | Advocacy & amici briefs |
| Jeffrey Sterling | Dec 22, 2010 | CIA | Operation Merlin | Advocacy & amici briefs |
| John Kiriakou | Jan 23, 2012 | CIA | Torture program | Legal representation |
| Edward Snowden | Jun 14, 2013 | NSA | Mass surveillance program | Legal representation |
| Reality Winner | May 9, 2017 | NSA | Election interference report | Advocacy & amici briefs |
| Julian Assange | Mar 6, 2018 | Wikileaks | Iraq & Afghanistan logs, State Dept cables, Guantanamo files | Advocacy & amici briefs |
| Terry Albury | Mar 27, 2018 | FBI | FBI’s Secret Rules | Advocacy & amici briefs |
| Daniel Hale | May 9, 2019 | NSA / NGIA | Drone Papers | Legal representation |
WHISPeR’s Espionage Act cases have been used as the primary examples in calls by civil liberties groups to reform the Espionage Act. In 2017, after years of criticism for waging the war on whistleblowers, President Obama commuted the excessive 35-year sentence of Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning. In 2020, Representative Tulsi Gabbard introduced the first legislation that would provide a defense of disclosure in the public interest for Espionage Act defendants accused of making illegal disclosures to the media. In 2021, Representative Ilhan Omar called on President Biden to pardon WHISPeR client drone whistleblower Daniel Hale, who pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Espionage Act. Beginning in 2022, Representative Rashida Tlaib made several attempts to introduce revamped legislation to reform the Espionage Act based on our work.
From the beginning, we have called attention to the dramatic rise in Espionage Act cases since 2009 and the obvious chilling effect created by punishing both dissent and core press freedom rights of investigative journalists. Whistleblowers, journalists, publishers, and news outlets that disclose government secrets have been investigated, prosecuted, and/or imprisoned under the law. There is no public interest defense under existing case law, in clear contravention of the First Amendment.