Nineteen civil rights, press freedom, human rights and whistleblower protection groups have asked the House Rules Committee to allow a vote on the espionage reform amendments on the floor.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) has introduced Amendment 759 to the Military Quality of Life and National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025 to amend espionage laws and protect journalists and whistleblowers from government abuses of power.
The two groups sent letters to Rules Committee Chairman Michael Burgess (R-Texas) and Sen. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.). Post to X The letter to the committee was sent by Defending Rights & Dissent.
“We strongly urge the amendment to be considered appropriate and brought to a vote on the floor,” the groups wrote. “Amendment 759, introduced by Rep. Rashida Tlaib, would amend the Espionage Act to curb the government’s abuse of the law to target journalists and whistleblowers. Such an amendment is urgently needed.”
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Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Michigan, has introduced Amendment 759 to the Military Quality of Life and National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2025, which seeks to reform the espionage law. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
“This amendment is closely related to the NDAA because it addresses provisions of the Espionage Act that regulate the disclosure of national defense information,” the letter continued. “Furthermore, this amendment addresses core First Amendment rights that are violated by the Espionage Act and therefore merits meaningful debate.”
Other organizations that signed the letter include the Freedom of the Press Foundation, Government Accountability Project, Government Intelligence Watchdog, Project on Government Oversight, National Security Advisory Group, Reporters Without Borders, Veterans for Peace and the American Whistleblowers Association.
“While the Espionage Act may sound like a law dealing with spies and saboteurs, this overly broad World War I-era law threatens press freedom by serving as a vehicle to prosecute publishers, journalists, their sources, and whistleblowers,” the groups wrote. “The Espionage Act, which predates both the classification system and modern First Amendment case law, criminalizes the unauthorized disclosure of the term ‘national defense information,’ although the statute does not define the term. The law has been used to intimidate and prosecute both media outlets and their sources that publish government secrets.”
The letter further states that the law is “very broad and could potentially apply not only to whistleblowers who ostensibly report government wrongdoing to the media and the journalists who publish those stories, but also to members of the public who discuss what they read in the newspapers.”
Amendment 759 would bring the Espionage Act into line with “modern First Amendment precedent” and remedy the “flagrant violations” of due process faced by whistleblower defendants under the Espionage Act, the letter said.
The letter argues that Sections 793 and 798 of the Espionage Act have been repeatedly used to undermine press freedom.
The groups said Amendment 759 would tighten the language of the two sections by limiting those provisions to government officials or foreign agents responsible for protecting classified information, requiring proper confidentiality of defense information, requiring the government to prove that a defendant acted with the specific intent to harm the United States or aid a foreign adversary, allowing defendants to testify about the reasons for disclosing information, and establishing an affirmative public interest defense.
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The letter said the Espionage Act was “so broad” that it could apply not only to whistleblowers and journalists but also to members of the public “discussing something they read in the newspapers.” (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The amendments would be limited in scope and would affect provisions of the Espionage Act that “have been applied against actual spies,” according to the letter.
“Sections 793 and 798 of the Espionage Act have significant implications for First Amendment protections against news gathering and the public’s right to know,” the groups wrote. “The American people should have a meaningful debate on this issue.”
The announcement comes as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is imprisoned in the UK fighting extradition to the US on espionage charges for publishing classified US military documents leaked by whistleblower Chelsea Manning, a US Army intelligence analyst, in 2010. Manning was sentenced to 35 years in prison for violating the Espionage Act and other charges, but her sentence was commuted to seven years by then-President Obama in January 2017.
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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is currently serving his life in a British prison, fighting extradition to the US to face espionage charges for publishing classified US military documents. (Getty Images)
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Tlaib has previously called for Assange’s release, and led a letter to Congress a year ago urging Attorney General Merrick Garland to drop the charges against Assange.
There have been previous attempts to amend the Espionage Act in Congress, with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), Rep. Ro Khan (D-CA), and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) reintroducing legislation to reform the Espionage Act in 2022.
Massie and McGovern also wrote a letter to Congress last fall urging President Biden to drop the prosecution of Assange.
