Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern speaks at a press conference on the second day of the Sterling trial. McGovern is part of a group that supports the federal government dropping its charges against former CIA employee Jeffrey Sterling for disclosing classified information (Paige Leskin/MNS)
ALEXANDRIA, VA – Members of an organization supporting whistleblowers Wednesday criticized the federal government for prosecuting former CIA employee Jeffrey Sterling on charges of disclosing classification information, calling it “vindictive” and a “witch hunt.”
The prosecution of a whistleblower like Sterling is a dangerous trend for the future of other whistleblowers as well as for the freedom of the press, RootsAction co-founder Norman Solomon said.
“We’ve seen a convoluted legal attack on [Sterling] as a whistleblower, as a CIA former case officer,” he said during a news conference. “This trial is a historic event. What goes on inside this building has tremendous implications for the years ahead.”
The news conference took place in front of the U.S. District Court, where the trial against Sterling continued Wednesday morning.
The former CIA employee is charged with 10 felony counts, including unauthorized disclosure of classified information and obstruction of justice. The charges are a result of the accusation that Sterling gave classified information about an operation to infiltrate Iran nuclear programming to New York Times journalist James Risen, which he used in a chapter of a book published in 2006.
RootsAction, a pro-whistleblower and press freedom organization, has organized an online petition calling for the government to drop the charges against Sterling, Solomon said. The petition has more than 50,000 signatures and will be delivered to the Department of Justice next week, he said.
While Sterling states that he was not the source of the leak to Risen, RootsAction chastised the government for prosecuting whistleblowers in general.
“I know when the CIA is going vindictively after people as to make an example out of them,” said Ray McGovern, a CIA analyst for 27 years and a supporter of RootsAction. “Whoever [leaked the information] did a service to our country.”
However, it is important to look at the possible impact releasing sensitive information could have on the country’s safety and national security, said Harvey Rishikof, who serves as chair of the American Bar Association Standing Committee on Law and National Security.
Whistleblowers must first evaluate whether the classified information they want to release falls under the Whistleblower Protection Act, Rishikof said. The legislation allows a person to disclose information if he or she believes it shows government wrongdoing. However, there are still consequences for breaking the law if the information is not considered protected, Rishikof said.
“From the government’s perspective, if people are disclosing classified information … and there are no penalties imposed, that is not a good precedence for the United States government to be taking,” Rishikof said. “I think what’s important is that the government focuses on government officials and not, per se, on the press.”
Both the defense and prosecution provided their opening statements Tuesday to the 14-person jury they had selected earlier in the day. Prosecutors described Sterling as a traitor who had disclosed information out of “anger, bitterness, selfishness,” after his $200,000 racial discrimination lawsuit against the CIA was dismissed.
Defense attorneys argued that there was no direct evidence of Sterling giving information to Risen. Instead, Sterling’s lawyer, Ed McMahon, suggested other federal officials may have provided Risen with material for his book.
“We will ask you to give the defendant his life back,” McMahon said. “He’s not a traitor—he’s a wonderful man who’s never betrayed anything.”
The prosecution continued to call witnesses and present various documents and phone records as evidence Wednesday.
