1973 May 11

Judge Dismisses Charges Against Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony Russo Because of Government Misconduct

 

Federal charges against Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony Russo for stealing the Pentagon Papers were dismissed on this day because of revelations of misconduct against the defendants by the administration of President Richard Nixon. The White House “Plumbers Unit” had burglarized the office of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist and had also illegally wiretapped Ellsberg’s telephone calls.

Ellsberg and Russo illegally photocopied the Pentagon Papers while working at the Rand Corporation, and leaked them to The New York Times. The Times published the first news stories based on the Papers on June 13, 1971. The stories exposed decades of government lying, reaching back to the 1950s, about the extent of U.S involvement in Vietnam.

The Nixon Administration obtained an injunction blocking further publication of stories based on the Papers, but the Supreme Court declared the injunction a violation of freedom of the press in the landmark freedom of the press case, New York Times v. United States, on June 30, 1971. Ellsberg and Russo were then charged with espionage, theft of government property, and conspiracy. Charges against them were dismissed because of government misconduct against Ellsberg and Russo, including a break-in of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office in Los Angeles (September 9, 1971) and also for illegally wiretapping his phone calls.

Because of the dismissal, the case did not provide a precedent for the case of Edward Snowden, who also stole and leaked secret government documents in 2013 (June 5, 2013).

Read: Daniel Ellsberg, Secrets: A Memoir of Vietnam and the Pentagon Papers Secrets (2002)

Watch Ellsberg discuss the Pentagon Papers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OF8nuvGyngU

Read a Biography of Ellsberg: Tom Wells, Wild Man: The Life and Times of Daniel Ellsberg (2001)

Learn more about the Ellsberg trial: http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/ellsberg/ellsberghome.html

Watch the documentary about Ellsberg: The Most Dangerous Man in America (2009)

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