U.S. May Drop NSA Whistleblower Case

Thomas Drake’s odyssey—from top government spook to accused spy—seems to be headed toward a happy ending. Drake, then an executive at the National Security Agency, leaked documents to a Baltimore Sun reporter about a program that he viewed as wasteful. The government—first in the Bush administration and later under President Obama—charged Drake with improperly keeping classified information under the 1917 Espionage Act, which could put him in jail for decades. But federal prosecutors will withdraw key documents in the case that would have been evidence in the trial, which begins Monday. Experts say that’s likely a prelude to dismissing some of the counts. Drake’s case has become a battleground for transparency advocates, who have blasted the prosecution as a witchhunt that could chill crucial whistleblowing. A major New Yorker story in May detailed the case, which has been described as “the most Draconian crackdown on leaks in our history—even more so than Nixon.”