Take Action: Espionage Act Reform is More Urgent Than Ever

Loading....

Take Action:
Espionage Act Reform is Now More Urgent Than Ever.

Julian Assange’s prosecution under the Espionage Act is a threat to press freedom.

Reach out to your member of Congress now!

Friday morning, December 10th, a UK High Court ruled that Julain Assange can be extradited to the US to face prosecution under the Espionage Act. The Biden administration (following the Trump administration’s lead) wants to put Assange on trial for publishing truthful information in the public interest.

Assange’s prosecution under the Espionage Act is a grave threat to press freedom.

This month has already been an eventful one for the Espionage Act, and it’s high time for Congress to take notice, and to take action.

On December 4th, millions of Americans tuned into a 60 Minutes interview with Reality Winner and learned how whistleblowers charged under the Espionage Act cannot testify about what they leaked or why they leaked it.
On December 7th, the House Rules Committee killed an amendment from Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) that would have allowed whistleblowers to testify about their purpose for disclosing documents and forced prosecutors to prove a defendant under the Espionage Act had the specific intent to harm US national security.
On December 8th, Daniel Hale, convicted under the Espionage Act for telling the public the truth about the US drone program, received Blueprint for Free Speech’s International Award for Whistleblowing. Hale could not speak on his own behalf, as he is in a communications management unit.

And now we have this terrible ruling from the UK High Court.

The Biden DOJ can certainly drop this Trump-era prosecution and cease the use of the Espionage Act against whistleblowers.

But we also need Congress to step up and take serious steps to reform the Espionage Act.

We just need few pieces of information to connect you with your members of Congress:

First Name*

Last Name*

Email Address*

Address, line 1*

City*

State*

Zip Code*

Please put me on DRAD's email list (no more than one email per week)

Please note that the additional information being requested below is required by members of Congress.

It is beyond our control. Defending Rights & Dissent does not require or capture this information. The lack of a gender-neutral title other than "Dr." on many congressional request forms is appalling and we apologize for it.

Take Action

Organization Name
Org Address Line 1
Org City, Org State Org Zip

Get in touch! Org Email or Org Phone

Send the Email! Please add your own words.

Send a Thank You to Rep. Tlaib

Subject: Thank you for your amendment to the Protecting Our Democracy Act

Message:

Characters remaining:

Your Members of Congress

Subject: It's Time to Amend the Espionage Act

Message:

Dear Representative, I am deeply disturbed by the US government’s continued Espionage Act prosecution of Julian Assange for publishing truthful information. Such a prosecution threatens to create a precedent that will criminalize journalism broadly, as much of the information at the heart of the Assange publications was also published by media outlets like the New York Times. Sadly, this prosecution is the natural progression of past administrations’ decisions to use the Espionage Act to prosecute journalists’ sources as spies for giving information to the media. We need Congress to amend the Espionage Act so it can no longer be used against journalists and whistleblowers. Right now, prosecutors do not need to prove a whistleblower charged under the Espionage Act intended to harm US national security and whistleblowers are barred from testifying before a jury about why they took the actions they did. And the overly broad Espionage Act as written does not only apply to government employees with security clearances, but those who have no legal duty to protect classified information, including the journalists and the public writ large, giving it a potentially limitless scope. We need Congress to take action to correct this problem and end the use of the Espionage Act against whistleblowers and journalists once and for all.

Characters remaining:

Organization Name
Org Address Line 1
Org City, Org State Org Zip

Get in touch! Org Email or Org Phone

Take Action: Espionage Act Reform is Now More Urgent Than Ever.

Julian Assange’s prosecution under the Espionage Act is a threat to press freedom.

Reach out to your member of Congress now!

We're sorry, but we can't find your members of Congress. If you think you may have received this message in error, please try entering your address again.

Your messages have been sent!

Take Action:
Espionage Act Reform is Now More Urgent Than Ever.