Dear Steve:

👀 pic.twitter.com/Btcr6aCtWI

— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) June 12, 2023

Welcome to Texas.

I luv ya, man. But, Dese are de conditions dat prevail!

It’s summer. It’s Texas. Yeah, it’s only June, but… there you are.

🤠

Although credit where it is due. I’ve read some (few) challenges to the Trump indictment that “liberals” are hypocrites because the Espionage Act is problematic. Well, it is; but the devil is in the details:

Since Tracey couldn’t be bothered, here’s a link to the full piece from which he’s quoting:https://t.co/DQoQR9fd3E

I’ve been ruthlessly consistent in arguing that the statute is overbroad and has been used against *recipients* of leaks in problematic ways. That’s … not Trump. https://t.co/6f00W0ei8F

— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) June 12, 2023

E.g.:

Not surprisingly, Mike is quoting Rosen entirely out of context. The only reason why Judge Ellis held that the government had to show intent to injure is because DOJ was prosecuting recipients of leaked national defense information—not an original wrongful possessor (like Trump). https://t.co/gTEDoNr91w

— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) June 13, 2023

To this day, Rosen remains the lone ruling about DOJ trying to use the Espionage Act to prosecute downstream recipients of national security leaks. In contrast, DOJ has regularly used the statute to prosecute original wrongful possessors—in which the mens rea is only “knowledge.”

— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) June 13, 2023

There are problems, and then there are problems….