A former employee of the National Security Agency, Thomas A. Drake, charged with espionage for leaking classified information, struck a deal with the Justice Department admitting to a misdemeanor of using NSA’s computers to to provide information to a reporter for the Baltimore Sun. It is expected that Drake will not have to serve any jail time.
Drake claimed he leaked information to the reporter out of concern that the agency was wasting taxpayer money by rejecting a $3 million in-house program for a contracted program costing more than $3 billion. The Obama administration indicted Drake, charging him with violating the Espionage Act for disclosing classified information to the press. -db
From The New York Times, June 9, 2011, by Scott Shane.