Revealed: US plans to charge Assange

[starroute]

17. It absolutely is not -- the Pentagon Papers case determined that

There are specific laws against things like revealing the identify of CIA officers, but there is nothing in the law involving where information came from or how it was originally obtained. This is why the government is attempting to show that Assange was in direct personal contact with Manning and incited him to leak the files, as opposed to WikiLeaks merely providing an anonymous welcome mat for whistleblowers in general.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentagon_Papers#Legal_case

Prior to publication, the New York Times sought legal advice. The paper's regular outside counsel, Lord Day & Lord, advised against publication, but house counsel James Goodale prevailed with his argument that the press had a First Amendment right to publish information significant to the people's understanding of their government's policy. . . .

On June 18, 1971, the Washington Post began publishing its own series of articles based upon the Pentagon Papers;[3] Ellsberg gave portions to editor Ben Bradlee. That day, Assistant U.S. Attorney General William Rehnquist asked the paper to cease publication. After it refused, Rehnquist unsuccessfully sought an injunction at a U.S. district court. The government appealed that decision, and on June 26 the Supreme Court agreed to hear it jointly with the New York Times case.[16] Fifteen other newspapers received copies of the study and began publishing it.[3]

On June 30, 1971, the Supreme Court decided, 6–3, that the government failed to meet the heavy burden of proof required for prior restraint injunction. . . .

Ellsberg surrendered to authorities in Boston and admitted that he had given the papers to the press. He was later indicted on charges of stealing and holding secret documents by a grand jury in Los Angeles. Federal District Judge William Matthew Byrne, Jr. declared a mistrial and dismissed all charges against Ellsberg [and Russo] on May 11, 1973, after several irregularities appeared in the government's case, including its claim that it had lost records of illegal wiretapping against Ellsberg conducted by the White House Plumbers in the contemporaneous Watergate scandal.