Oh, you have liability, once you suspect you are gaining unauthorized access to classified materials you are obligated to end all contact and report to relevant authorities, ie the defense department or fbi.

If he wasn't a journalist he might have some plausible deniability, but he had 0 excuse.

[–] mkwt@lemmy.world 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

This is true for people who hold security clearances and who have signed NDAs.

This is definitely not true for journalists. There is a first amendment right to publish classified stuff if you get your hands on it. See the Pentagon Papers.

For normies who don't have the backing of the New York Times, there's a bit of a grey area, because the Espionage Act is still on the books, probably unconstitutional, and never really been seriously tested. See Julian Assange, where he ultimately pled guilty to an Espionage Act charge without challenging the law itself.

[–] InvertedParallax@lemm.ee 3 points 6 days ago

You have a point, but the key was the Pentagon papers were given to them, and ellsberg would have gone to prison if not for the prosecutorial misconduct.

Then again the material was given to Goldberg, so I suppose the parallel was apt.