Once Reserved For Spies, Espionage Act Now Used Against Suspected Leakers
President Woodrow Wilson signed the Espionage Act to target spies during World War I. The Obama administration used it against suspected leakers, and now the Trump administration is doing the same.
A hundred years ago this month, President Woodrow Wilson signed the Espionage Act to deal with spying against the U.S. in World War I.
Historically, the most notorious U.S. spy cases have been tried under the act, like the one against Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, who were convicted in 1951 of giving nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union and executed two years later.
But prosecutions have been relatively rare, and were limited
