https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/the-conversation/sd-before-trump-obama-prosecuted-leaks-20170804-htmlstory.html

Thomas Drake

Drake was a National Security Agency executive before he was indicted in April 2010 under the Espionage Act for allegedly leaking information about TrailBlazer, one of several surveillance programs used by the agency. Drake eventually pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and avoided prison.

Shamai Leibowitz

Leibowitz was an FBI linguist before pleading guilty in May 2010 to leaking national security information to a blogger. Leibowitz was sentenced to 20 months in prison.

Chelsea Manning (formerly Bradley Manning)

Manning was an Army intelligence analyst who was arrested and charged in June 2010 in connection with one of the largest leaks ever of U.S. State Department documents. In July 2013, Manning was convicted to a prison sentence of 35 years, a sentence Obama commuted before he left office.

Stephen Kim

Kim was a state department contractor before he was indicted in August 2010 for leaking information about North Korea to a Fox News reporter, James Rosen. Kim pleaded guilty and in 2014, he was sentenced to 13 months in prison.

James Rosen

Rosen, a Fox News journalist, reported in 2009 that U.S. officials feared North Korea would respond to United Nations sanctions with nuclear tests, The Washington Post wrote at the time. Stephen Kim was suspected to be his source, so the Justice Department obtained Rosen’s phone records and emails to make that connection.

Jeffrey Sterling

Sterling was a CIA officer before he was arrested and charged in 2011 with leaking information about U.S. efforts to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program to a reporter for The New York Times, James Risen. Four years later, Sterling was convicted on espionage charges and was sentenced to 42 months in prison.

James Risen

Risen was first ordered to testify in the Justice Department’s case against Sterling as early as 2008 at the end of the George W. Bush administration, The Times reported. Risen spent the next seven years, mostly during the Obama administration, fighting the Justice Department and vowing to go to prison before revealing his source.

The legal battle ended finally in 2015 when Attorney General Eric Holder said Risen would not be forced to testify in the case.

John Kiriakou

Kiriakou, a former CIA officer, was charged in 2012 with disclosing information to reporters about the capture and interrogation of Abu Zubaydah, a suspected Al Qaeda member. Kiriakou pleaded guilty later that year and was then sentenced to 30 months in prison.

Donald Sachtleben

Sachtleben was a former FBI agent who pleaded guilty in 2013 to leaking classified information about to journalists about a foiled bomb plot in Yemen, The New York Times reported. Sachtleben was sentenced to more than three years in prison.

Edward Snowden

Snowden is the notorious NSA contractor who leaked information to journalists about the agency’s massive surveillance programs in 2013. Snowden was charged with three felonies — one count for theft of government property and two for disclosing that information. Snowden fled the U.S. and to this day remains in asylum in Russia.

https://freedom.press/news/obama-used-espionage-act-put-record-number-reporters-sources-jail-and-trump-could-be-even-worse/

“My background is in the Navy, and it is good to hang an admiral once in a while as an example to the others,” Dennis Blair told The New York Times in July 2013. “We were hoping to get somebody and make people realize that there are consequences to this and it needed to stop.”

Blair, who served as Director of National Intelligence for the Obama administration in 2009 and 2010, was defending the Obama administration’s strategy of aggressively prosecuting journalists’ sources under the Espionage Act of 1917.

Under pressure from Congress and intelligence agencies, Attorney General Eric Holder directed the Department of Justice to aggressively prosecute government employees who discussed classified information with reporters. In 2012, after news organizations reported on U.S. drone strikes and attempts to disable Iranian nuclear reactors, Holder assigned two U.S. attorneys to track down the journalists’ sources.

Mr. Holder assigned two prosecutors — Ronald C. Machen, the United States attorney for the District of Columbia, and Rod J. Rosenstein, his counterpart in Maryland

Two other high ranking Obama officials, General David Petraeus and General James Cartwright, were also prosecuted as part of leak investigations. They both ultimately pled to lesser charges and were never indicted under the Espionage Act. Cartwright was also later pardoned.

U.S. v. Whistleblower Tom Drake

https://heavy.com/news/2018/06/james-a-wolfe/

“F.B.I. agents approached Ms. Watkins about a previous three-year romantic relationship she had with Mr. Wolfe, saying they were investigating unauthorized leaks.”