CRS RS21900
Updated August 5, 2004
The Protection of Classified Information: The Legal Framework
Nathan Brooks, Legislative Attorney, American Law Division
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Criminal Penalties.
Generally, federal law prescribes a prison sentence of no more than a year and/or a $1,000 fine for officers and employees of the federal government who knowingly remove classified material without the authority to do so and with the intention of keeping that material at an unauthorized location. [39]
Stiffer penalties – fines of up to $10,000 and imprisonment for up to ten years – attach when a federal employee transmits classified information to anyone that employee has reason to believe is an agent of a foreign government. [40]
Fines and a ten-year prison terms also await anyone, government employee or not, who publishes, makes available to an unauthorized person, or otherwise uses to the United States’ detriment classified information regarding the codes, cryptography, and communications intelligence utilized by the United States or a foreign government. [41]
[39] 18 U.S.C. § 1924. Agencies often require employees to sign non-disclosure agreements prior to obtaining access to classified information, the validity of which was upheld by the Supreme Court in Snepp v. United States, 444 U.S. 507 (1980).
[40] 50 U.S.C. § 783.
[41] 18 U.S.C. § 798. This provision is part of the Espionage Act (codified at 18 U.S.C. §§ 792 - 799), which generally protects against the unauthorized transmission of a much broader category of “national defense” information, prescribing fines and a prison term of up to ten years.
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