National Security Agency Analyst
Charged with Disclosing Secrets
A former National Security Agency intelligence analyst is facing criminal charges after allegedly turning over classified information to an investigative news reporter in Washington, D.C.
Former airman Daniel Everette Hale, 31, was working for the NSA’s National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency when he allegedly turned over documents describing U.S. counterterrorism and military operations against al Qaeda.
The information was reported by an online investigative news agency, which is not identified in the charging documents. However, other sources have identified the news organization as The Intercept, which describes itself as a publication dedicated to “adversarial journalism.”
Hale is accused with printing 36 documents from a computer that contained classified information. Twenty-three of them were unrelated to his job, according to prosecutors.
A Justice Department statement says Hale gave "at least 17 to the reporter and/or the reporter's online news outlet, which published the documents in whole or in part. Eleven of the published documents were classified as Top Secret or Secret and marked as such."
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Big Referral Fees
For Little Work
Do you know someone who wants to sell a home, office or other real estate?
If you do, you could earn thousands of dollars with a quick phone call or e-mail. The Legal Forum pays a base fee of $1,500 for referrals to sellers’ property that sells for at least $200,000. Each $100,000 of value to the property over $200,000 gives the person making the referral an extra $100. A $700,000 dollar property value, for example, would earn a referral fee of $2,000.
Your only obligation is to phone or e-mail Tom Ramstack with the name, address, phone number or e-mail address of the seller. In most cases, it should take no more than 10 minutes of your time.
For more information, click the Real Estate icon on the menu above or contact Tom Ramstack at 240-421-6395 or e-mail tramstack@aol.com.
The referral fees are offered to anyone in the District of Columbia but only real estate licensees in other states. However, non-real estate agents can receive credits equal to the referral fee toward the purchase or sale of property in Virginia and Maryland.
The brokerage for the Legal Forum is Fairfax Realty at 3190 Fairview Park Drive, Suite 100, Falls Church, VA 22042, phone: (703) 533-8660.
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Former Trump Campaign Manager
Disbarred from Washington, D.C.
Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort is no longer a licensed Washington, D.C. attorney after being disbarred last week.
A panel of D.C. Court of Appeals judges said in a ruling that they were responding to criminal convictions against Manafort for obstruction of justice through witness tampering and conspiracy to commit fraud.
“We have held that a conviction for conspiracy to commit a crime of moral turpitude is a crime of moral turpitude,” their court filing says. “Because respondent has been convicted of a crime of moral turpitude, the mandatory sanction imposed by statute is to disbar him from the practice of law.”
Manafort was convicted in a Virginia court last year on charges resulting from an investigation by Justice Department special counsel Robert Mueller. He was investigating allegations that President Donald Trump colluded with the Russian government for assistance to win the 2016 presidential election.
Trump was cleared of the allegations but the investigation turned up evidence of other wrongdoing by some of the president’s associates, including Manafort.
He was accused of lobbying for the Ukrainian government without disclosing the arrangement to the U.S. government. He also hid the amount of money he was paid.
He pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in federal court in Washington, D.C. as part of a plea bargain. He resigned from the Connecticut Bar earlier this year.
Manafort is incarcerated at a minimum security prison in Pennsylvania. He was sentenced to 7-½ years in prison earlier this year.
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D.C. Radio Station Must Register
As Russian Agent, Judge Rules
A Washington, D.C. radio station must register as a foreign agent because of its persistent broadcasts of Russian news and information that critics describe as propaganda, a federal judge ruled last week.
This week, the Justice Department hailed the ruling for showing how the Russian government tries to manipulate news and politics in the United States.
Since December 2017, Washington station WZHF-AM has broadcast the English version of Russian government-controlled Radio Sputnik.
The radio broadcasts are part the Russian government-owned news agency Rossiya Segodnya, headquartered in Moscow but operating with bureaus worldwide. It directs its news about global politics and economics toward non-Russian audiences.
The New York Times has accused the news agency of deliberate disinformation and running Russian propaganda outlets in the United States and other countries.
The Legal Forum welcomes letters to the editor at tramstack@gmail.com, which will be published here.
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Book on Boston Marathon Bombs
Shows Lone Wolf Terrorism Rises
A new book that reports on the April 15, 2013 Boston Marathon bombings and trial of the convicted killer shows the attack was only an early example of more coming soon.
Boston's Bloody Marathon uses the bombings by Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his brother as an example of the lone wolf terrorism increasingly encouraged by Islamic extremist groups such as ISIS and al-Qaeda.
Lone wolves refer to terrorists who plot their attacks alone, usually with no organization to support them and no official links to violent groups. There is almost no way to know their next target until they strike. U.S. intelligence agencies call them perhaps the biggest terrorist threat to the United States and its allies.
Boston's Bloody Marathon, by Tom Ramstack, is available on Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com.
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D.C. Council Faces Opposition
For Proposed FOIA Request Limits
Recent D.C. Council proposals to restrict the language required for Freedom of Information Act requests are drawing criticism from advocates of government transparency.
The proposed changes are included in a 160-page budget document the D.C. Council published this month. Some Council members say they want to cut down on the tax money that must be used to respond to a growing number of FOIA requests.
However, the D.C. Open Government Coalition and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press say further FOIA restrictions are likely to hide information of public importance, perhaps leading to cover-ups.
One of the Council’s proposals says D.C. agencies should disclose only information “regarding the affairs of government and the official acts of public officials and employees.”
The current FOIA rule takes a broader approach, saying D.C. agencies must disclose requested “information.”
Transit Rider Sues Metro
After Rape on Rail Car
A woman who was raped by a fellow passenger on a Metro Red Line train is suing the transit agency for $20 million.
She says Metro failed to protect passengers adequately, particularly considering the man who raped her already was a suspect in a previous sexual offense.
The accused rapist, John Prentice Hicks, was sentenced last year to two life terms in prison for the rape, which occurred in April 2016 near the Glenmont station. He was arrested shortly afterward.
Metro police were searching for Hicks before the rape after he allegedly exposed himself to other transit passengers a week-and-a-half before the woman was attacked.
The lawsuit, which was filed anonymously, claims it was foreseeable by Metro that Hicks would assault someone based on his previous behavior.
It was filed in D.C. Superior Court last month but removed to U.S. District Court last week. Federal court is the traditional venue for lawsuits against Metro.
The lawsuit also accuses Metro of negligence in the design of its rail cars. Older rail cars have a space at the end of each of them that heightens the risk of an assault, the claimant says.
“[Metro] also knew or should have known that the darkened and secluded partitioned area in the train created an environment in which crimes can more easily be committed,” the lawsuit says.
Metro has pledged to make a greater effort to tell its riders about incidents and risks on the transit system.