It always amazes me that prosecutions for disclosures of classified information take so long. Reality Winner (a name we would have to think was a pseudonym were it not real) was arrested over a year ago, plead guilty, and negotiated a agreement that gave her 63 months in jail. That is for information that was TS/SCI. It really takes too long.
When I worked for DoD I had to support the preparation of a couple of these cases and it is amazing the kinds of things that we had to go through to establish all the elements of the case. We had to call people who could testify to the classification and why the material was classified at that level. We had to show the security agreement that was signed by the subject, the security education reminders that a subject could not give classified information to an unauthorized person. The list went on and on and it took forever to get all these elements together and present them to the US Attorney. All that was done before the information was shared with the subject's attorney who looked at them for a few seconds and recommended a plea deal. Certainly we could focus on this area to streamline the law to reduce the amount of paper that had to be reproduced to show a person who holds a position with the government, and has a Top Secret clearance, and signs off on annual briefings (everyone does this). Lawmakers spend too much time trying to make complications and exceptions rather than focus on the process and cut it back to what is really necessary.
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