{
  "title": "Incidents in the United States, stage: punish, head of government Barack Obama",
  "canonical_url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents?country=US&stage=punish&leader=barack-obama",
  "filters": {
    "country": "US",
    "stage": "punish",
    "leader": "barack-obama"
  },
  "sort": "date",
  "count": 6,
  "page": 1,
  "pages": 1,
  "per_page": 50,
  "counts_caveat": "The number of entries reflects the depth of this record, not the severity of a country's conduct.",
  "facets": {
    "country": [
      {
        "value": "US",
        "label": "United States",
        "rsf": {
          "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
          "year": 2026,
          "rank": 64,
          "of": 180,
          "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180",
          "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
        }
      }
    ],
    "continent": [
      {
        "value": "north-america",
        "label": "North America"
      }
    ],
    "tactic": [
      {
        "value": "secrets_and_espionage_laws",
        "label": "Secrets and espionage laws",
        "count": 5
      },
      {
        "value": "surveillance_and_subpoenas",
        "label": "Surveillance and subpoenas",
        "count": 4
      },
      {
        "value": "detention_and_violence",
        "label": "Detention and violence",
        "count": 1
      }
    ],
    "stage": [
      {
        "value": "punish",
        "label": "Punish",
        "count": 6
      }
    ],
    "level": [
      {
        "value": "national",
        "label": "National",
        "count": 6
      }
    ],
    "outcome": [
      {
        "value": "reversed",
        "label": "Reversed",
        "count": 2
      },
      {
        "value": "sustained",
        "label": "Sustained",
        "count": 2
      },
      {
        "value": "unknown",
        "label": "Unknown",
        "count": 1
      },
      {
        "value": "upheld",
        "label": "Upheld by a court",
        "count": 1
      }
    ],
    "leader": [
      {
        "value": "barack-obama",
        "label": "Barack Obama"
      }
    ],
    "era": [
      {
        "value": "2010s",
        "label": "2010s",
        "count": 6
      }
    ],
    "year": [
      {
        "value": "2010",
        "label": "2010",
        "count": 1
      },
      {
        "value": "2013",
        "label": "2013",
        "count": 4
      },
      {
        "value": "2014",
        "label": "2014",
        "count": 1
      }
    ],
    "has_case": [
      {
        "value": "0",
        "label": "without a court case",
        "count": 6
      }
    ]
  },
  "results": [
    {
      "slug": "2014-us-james-risen-subpoena-jeffrey-sterling",
      "title": "United States pursues New York Times reporter James Risen's testimony for years before dropping its demand for his source",
      "occurred_on": "2014-10-17",
      "occurred_on_precision": "day",
      "country": "US",
      "country_name": "United States",
      "continent": "north-america",
      "jurisdiction": "US",
      "level": "national",
      "tactic_primary": "surveillance_and_subpoenas",
      "tactics": [
        "secrets_and_espionage_laws",
        "surveillance_and_subpoenas"
      ],
      "leader_slug": "barack-obama",
      "leader_name": "Barack Obama",
      "issue_of_the_day": "A 2006 book account of a botched CIA operation meant to disrupt Iran's nuclear weapons program.",
      "outcome": "reversed",
      "outcome_on": "2014-10-17",
      "outcome_note": "After the Supreme Court declined to hear Risen's appeal, the Justice Department chose not to compel his testimony or the identity of his source; Sterling was convicted without it.",
      "stage": "punish",
      "ladder_note": null,
      "rsf": {
        "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
        "year": 2026,
        "rank": 64,
        "of": 180,
        "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180",
        "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
      },
      "era": "2010s",
      "granularity": "anchor",
      "status": "historical",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "For years, federal prosecutors sought New York Times reporter James Risen's testimony identifying a confidential source in a CIA leak case; the Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal, but Attorney General Eric Holder ultimately chose not to force him to testify or name the source.",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2014-us-james-risen-subpoena-jeffrey-sterling"
    },
    {
      "slug": "2013-obama-doj-charges-eight-under-espionage-act",
      "title": "United States: Espionage Act prosecutions of sources for leaks to the press, 2009 to 2013",
      "occurred_on": "2013-10-10",
      "occurred_on_precision": "day",
      "country": "US",
      "country_name": "United States",
      "continent": "north-america",
      "jurisdiction": "US",
      "level": "national",
      "tactic_primary": "secrets_and_espionage_laws",
      "tactics": [
        "secrets_and_espionage_laws",
        "surveillance_and_subpoenas"
      ],
      "leader_slug": "barack-obama",
      "leader_name": "Barack Obama",
      "issue_of_the_day": null,
      "outcome": "unknown",
      "outcome_on": null,
      "outcome_note": "The record documents the prosecutions as a group; the outcome of each case is not recorded here.",
      "stage": "punish",
      "ladder_note": null,
      "rsf": {
        "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
        "year": 2026,
        "rank": 64,
        "of": 180,
        "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180",
        "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
      },
      "era": "2010s",
      "granularity": "anchor",
      "status": "in_effect",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "A report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a non-profit organization in New York that documents cases of journalists imprisoned or killed worldwide, published on October 10, 2013, found that since 2009 the United States Department of Justice had brought felony charges against six government employees and two contractors, including Edward Snowden, accused of leaking classified information to the press. The charges were brought under the Espionage Act, a 1917 United States law against disclosing defence information, during the presidency of Barack Obama. The Project On Government Oversight, a United States non-profit that investigates the federal government, said the department under Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder \"has used it more than all prior administrations combined.\"",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2013-obama-doj-charges-eight-under-espionage-act"
    },
    {
      "slug": "2013-us-doj-names-fox-reporter-co-conspirator",
      "title": "United States search warrant names Fox News reporter James Rosen a possible co-conspirator in a leak case",
      "occurred_on": "2013-05-20",
      "occurred_on_precision": "day",
      "country": "US",
      "country_name": "United States",
      "continent": "north-america",
      "jurisdiction": "US",
      "level": "national",
      "tactic_primary": "surveillance_and_subpoenas",
      "tactics": [
        "secrets_and_espionage_laws",
        "surveillance_and_subpoenas"
      ],
      "leader_slug": "barack-obama",
      "leader_name": "Barack Obama",
      "issue_of_the_day": "A 2009 Fox News report, sourced to a State Department analyst, forecasting North Korea's response to new United Nations sanctions.",
      "outcome": "sustained",
      "outcome_on": "2013-07-12",
      "outcome_note": "The warrant was not withdrawn from the record; Kim pleaded guilty in 2014 and Rosen was never charged. Holder's July 2013 guidelines later restricted subpoenas naming reporters as suspects.",
      "stage": "punish",
      "ladder_note": null,
      "rsf": {
        "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
        "year": 2026,
        "rank": 64,
        "of": 180,
        "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180",
        "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
      },
      "era": "2010s",
      "granularity": "anchor",
      "status": "historical",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "A 2010 FBI search-warrant affidavit, unsealed in 2013, described Fox News reporter James Rosen as a possible co-conspirator in violating the Espionage Act because he sought classified information from a State Department analyst, and used that theory to obtain his private emails.",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2013-us-doj-names-fox-reporter-co-conspirator"
    },
    {
      "slug": "2013-us-doj-seizes-ap-phone-records",
      "title": "United States Justice Department secretly seizes two months of Associated Press phone records",
      "occurred_on": "2013-05-13",
      "occurred_on_precision": "day",
      "country": "US",
      "country_name": "United States",
      "continent": "north-america",
      "jurisdiction": "US",
      "level": "national",
      "tactic_primary": "surveillance_and_subpoenas",
      "tactics": [
        "surveillance_and_subpoenas"
      ],
      "leader_slug": "barack-obama",
      "leader_name": "Barack Obama",
      "issue_of_the_day": "A May 2012 AP report on a foiled al-Qaeda bomb plot aimed at a U.S.-bound airplane, which the government said compromised an intelligence source.",
      "outcome": "sustained",
      "outcome_on": "2013-07-12",
      "outcome_note": "The records were not returned and no journalist or source was charged; the Justice Department issued revised media-subpoena guidelines on July 12, 2013, after the disclosure.",
      "stage": "punish",
      "ladder_note": null,
      "rsf": {
        "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
        "year": 2026,
        "rank": 64,
        "of": 180,
        "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180",
        "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
      },
      "era": "2010s",
      "granularity": "anchor",
      "status": "historical",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "The U.S. Justice Department secretly obtained two months of telephone records from more than 20 Associated Press phone lines during a leak investigation, notifying the news agency only after the fact; AP called the scope of the seizure unjustified.",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2013-us-doj-seizes-ap-phone-records"
    },
    {
      "slug": "2012-us-john-kiriakou-espionage-act-cia-torture-source",
      "title": "United States prosecutes former CIA officer John Kiriakou under the Espionage Act for identifying a covert colleague to a journalist",
      "occurred_on": "2013-01-25",
      "occurred_on_precision": "day",
      "country": "US",
      "country_name": "United States",
      "continent": "north-america",
      "jurisdiction": "US",
      "level": "national",
      "tactic_primary": "secrets_and_espionage_laws",
      "tactics": [
        "secrets_and_espionage_laws"
      ],
      "leader_slug": "barack-obama",
      "leader_name": "Barack Obama",
      "issue_of_the_day": "Public disclosure of the CIA's post-September 11 interrogation program, including its use of waterboarding.",
      "outcome": "upheld",
      "outcome_on": "2015-02-03",
      "outcome_note": "Kiriakou served his full 30-month sentence under the plea agreement and was released in February 2015; no CIA interrogation-program official faced comparable charges.",
      "stage": "punish",
      "ladder_note": null,
      "rsf": {
        "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
        "year": 2026,
        "rank": 64,
        "of": 180,
        "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180",
        "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
      },
      "era": "2010s",
      "granularity": "anchor",
      "status": "historical",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "Former CIA officer John Kiriakou, who in 2007 was the first CIA officer to publicly describe the agency's waterboarding of a detainee, pleaded guilty to identifying a covert colleague to a journalist and was sentenced under the Espionage Act to 30 months in prison.",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2012-us-john-kiriakou-espionage-act-cia-torture-source"
    },
    {
      "slug": "2010-us-chelsea-manning-espionage-act-wikileaks",
      "title": "United States charges Army analyst Chelsea Manning under the Espionage Act for leaking to WikiLeaks",
      "occurred_on": "2010-07-05",
      "occurred_on_precision": "day",
      "country": "US",
      "country_name": "United States",
      "continent": "north-america",
      "jurisdiction": "US",
      "level": "national",
      "tactic_primary": "secrets_and_espionage_laws",
      "tactics": [
        "detention_and_violence",
        "secrets_and_espionage_laws"
      ],
      "leader_slug": "barack-obama",
      "leader_name": "Barack Obama",
      "issue_of_the_day": "United States conduct of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and detainee treatment, including the CIA's interrogation program.",
      "outcome": "reversed",
      "outcome_on": "2017-01-17",
      "outcome_note": "Manning's convictions were not overturned, but President Obama commuted her 35-year sentence in January 2017 and she was released that May.",
      "stage": "punish",
      "ladder_note": null,
      "rsf": {
        "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
        "year": 2026,
        "rank": 64,
        "of": 180,
        "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180",
        "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
      },
      "era": "2010s",
      "granularity": "anchor",
      "status": "historical",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "The U.S. Army charged intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning under the Espionage Act, a 1917 law against disclosing defense information, after she gave WikiLeaks, a website that publishes leaked documents, a large archive of military and diplomatic files that news organizations later published.",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/2010-us-chelsea-manning-espionage-act-wikileaks"
    }
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