Ex-NSA manager has reportedly twice rejected plea bargains in Espionage Act case

Ex-NSA manager has reportedly twice rejected plea bargains in Espionage Act case

www.washingtonpost.com

Thomas A. Drake, the former National Security Agency manager who is facing trial on Espionage Act charges in what appears to be a greatly weakened government case, has refused twice to accept the government’s offers of a plea bargain, according to people following the case.

Drake, 54, on Wednesday morning rejected prosecutors’ offers to plead guilty to a misdemeanor with no jail time — just a few days before the trial is set to begin Monday. He turned down another offer late Wednesday night, according to people who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized t

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After reading this entire article you get the feeling that this whole deal is due to the fact that Drake was very much opposed to the NSA's use of technology to violate American's privacy.

Does this sound familiar?

By declining the plea offers, the government has decided to redact or withdraw alleged evidence against Drake to protect classified information.

I wonder what is classified? something vital to national security, or the evidence to prove Drake's worries over the waste, fraud and abuse by the NSA involved in the Trailblazer project?



www.washingtonpost.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

A related AP piece on this topic..

US spy agency will seek low profile in leak case

The National Security Agency may briefly lift its cloak of secrecy next week when a former senior official accused of passing classified documents to a newspaper reporter is set to stand trial in a rare prosecution of an alleged leaker.
The government will resist revealing too much about its mammoth electronic intelligence service by strictly limiting what is said and shown in open court, and has already withdrawn some classified evidence, saying it could disclose a sensitive target of NSA eavesdroppers.

Great post OP.

Here's another excellent article in the New Yorker about Drake. This guy's first full day at the NSA was on 9/11 in 2001.

As Drake tells it, his problems began on September 11, 2001. “The next seven weeks were crucial,” he said. “It’s foundational to why I am a criminal defendant today.”

The morning that Al Qaeda attacked the U.S. was, coincidentally, Drake’s first full day of work as a civilian employee at the N.S.A.

And from there this guy began to see so many unconstitutional and unprecedented changes happening. It's a fascinating read, and informative about how the NSA has morphed into a kind of shadow government.