first_published_at,last_published_at,title,slug,latest_revision_created_at,charges,legal_orders,updates,categories,links,equipment_seized,equipment_broken,targeted_journalists,authors,date,exact_date_unknown,city,state,latitude,longitude,body,introduction,teaser,teaser_image,primary_video,image_caption,arrest_status,arresting_authority,release_date,detention_date,unnecessary_use_of_force,case_number,case_statuses,case_type,status_of_seized_equipment,is_search_warrant_obtained,actor,border_point,target_us_citizenship_status,denial_of_entry,stopped_previously,did_authorities_ask_for_device_access,did_authorities_ask_about_work,assailant,was_journalist_targeted,charged_under_espionage_act,subpoena_type,subpoena_statuses,name_of_business,third_party_business,legal_order_target,legal_order_type,legal_order_venue,status_of_prior_restraint,mistakenly_released_materials,type_of_denial,targeted_institutions,tags,target_nationality,workers_whose_communications_were_obtained,politicians_or_public_figures_involved 2019-05-10 13:48:24.826627+00:00,2024-02-29 19:53:16.490768+00:00,Former intelligence analyst charged with leaking classified documents to reporter,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/former-intelligence-analyst-charged-leaking-classified-documents-reporter/,2024-02-29 19:53:16.395135+00:00,,,"(2021-03-31 10:15:00+00:00) Former intelligence analyst pleads guilty to leaking classified documents to reporter, (2021-07-27 11:33:00+00:00) Former intelligence analyst sentenced to 45 months in prison under the Espionage Act",Leak Case,,,,,,2019-05-09,False,Alexandria,Virginia (VA),38.80484,-77.04692,"
Former intelligence analyst Daniel Everette Hale was arrested on May 9, 2019, and charged with leaking classified information about drone warfare and other counterterrorism measures to a reporter.
Hale has been charged with five crimes related to the disclosure of military-related information, and could face up to 50 years in prison if convicted.
The Justice Department indictment details alleged contact with a reporter dating back to April 2013, at which time Hale is accused of meeting with the reporter at a bookstore in Washington, D.C. The indictment lists 36 total documents Hale is alleged to have printed, 11 of which are classified.
While the reporter to whom Hale is accused of leaking is not named in the indictment, the description and timing of the reporting described in the document suggest it is Jeremy Scahill, who co-founded The Intercept and has reported extensively on U.S. military activities. The Intercept said it does not comment on anonymous sources in its statement on the indictment.
James Risen, director of First Look Media’s Press Freedom Defense Fund and The Intercept’s senior national security correspondent, also released a statement:
“Like previous prosecutions of alleged journalistic sources, the prosecution of Daniel Everette Hale amounts to an abuse of the Espionage Act to criminalize the process of reporting. Everyone who cares about press freedom should reject the government’s outrageous crackdown on whistleblowers, which accelerated dramatically under President Barack Obama and has escalated further under Donald Trump, targeting the very people who are working the hardest to hold the government accountable for abuses and to protect our democracy.”
Hale is the seventh person to be investigated by the Trump Justice Department for allegedly sharing confidential information with the press. The Trump administration is on pace to surpass the Obama administration’s record of the most prosecutions of alleged journalistic sources. During President Obama’s eight years in office, the Department of Justice brought charges against eight people accused of leaking to the media.
Included in the indictment against Daniel Everette Hale is a chart of secret and top secret documents that he is accused of acquiring and printing.
",None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,True,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Department of Justice, Espionage Act",,, 2019-05-13 18:59:02.466968+00:00,2024-01-12 15:17:12.927080+00:00,Connecticut reporter arrested and briefly detained while covering demonstration,https://pressfreedomtracker.us/all-incidents/connecticut-reporter-arrested-and-briefly-detained-while-covering-demonstration/,2024-01-12 15:17:12.807403+00:00,,,(2019-10-22 12:53:00+00:00) Connecticut police chief issues written apology for arrest of Hearst reporter,Arrest/Criminal Charge,,,,Tara O'Neill (Hearst Connecticut Media Group),,2019-05-09,False,Bridgeport,Connecticut (CT),41.17923,-73.18945,"Hearst Connecticut Media reporter Tara O’Neill was arrested while covering a demonstration in Bridgeport and briefly held in police custody on May 9, 2019.
According to her first-person account for the Connecticut Post, O’Neill was handcuffed by Bridgeport police while she was reporting on a protest commemorating the two-year anniversary of the fatal police shooting of teenager Jayson Negron. O’Neill was held for about 30 minutes, and then released without charges.
O’Neill shared video footage of her arrest on Twitter.
Footage of me getting arrested in #Bridgeport while covering a #JusticeforJayson protest on the two-year anniversary of his death. pic.twitter.com/4zEFIHSKj9
— Tara O'Neill (@Tara_ONeill_) May 10, 2019
“I was standing on the sidewalk when they were asking people to get off the street and as I was being handcuffed I said, ‘I’m on a public sidewalk. I’m the press,’” O’Neill told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker in an email. “All I heard the arresting officer respond was ‘Ok,’ before he told me to sit down on the ground and not move.”
She said she was wearing her press badge on a lanyard around her neck, and that after being handcuffed, she attempted to explain to the officers that she was a reporter.
“It didn’t seem to make any difference to them at that point,” she said.
O’Neill was put in the back of a police car and taken to the police station, but never placed in a holding cell. The arresting officer, according to O’Neill, later apologized and said he did not know she was a reporter.
The New England First Amendment Coalition quickly condemned her arrest and detention. The Coalition called on Bridgeport police to issue a formal apology, release the name of the arresting officer, and review the department’s internal policies to prevent the future infringement on journalistic rights.
“Looking back at what happened, I’m frustrated to know that there might not have been anything I could have done to prevent it — other than not showing up and doing my job,” O’Neill wrote in the Connecticut Post.
Bridgeport, Connecticut, police line up in response to a protest around the second anniversary of the shooting death of Jayson Negron. Reporter Tara O’Neill was detained and 11 others were arrested during the protest.
",detained and released without being processed,Bridgeport Police Department,2019-05-09,2019-05-09,False,None,[],None,None,False,None,None,None,False,False,None,None,None,None,False,None,[],None,None,None,None,None,None,False,[],,"Black Lives Matter, protest",,,