Prosecutors suggested Monday that a sentence of nine years or more might be appropriate in a court filing. Hales' attorneys suggested a sentence of 12-18 months for their client.The Biden Justice Department demanded a heavy sentence for Hale. This shows that while the new administration is eager to make peace between journalists and news outlets and the appointees of the new administration, prosecutors will continue to pursue those who leak information to the media.The department seems determined to convey that the unprecedented accommodations President Joe Biden has made for journalists are not a sign of new leniency for leakers.Individuals like Hale who decide unilaterally to reveal classified information should not be subject to criminal penalties that are theoretically severe but actually lenient. Hale and others in similar circumstances seem to believe that they won't be caught or that the punishment will only be minimal, prosecutors wrote. Hales' blatant disregard of the consequences of his actions requires a substantial sentence.In March, a trial was set. Hale made an unusual move and pleaded guilty to the case without making any plea agreement with the government. He admitted that he had given more than 150 pages classified records at the top-secret and secret levels to a journalist in violation of the Espionage Act. In public court filings, the recipient is referred only to as the reporter. However, details about Hales activities along with the records he leaked show that Hales was Jeremy Scahill from The Intercept.Some of the documents Hale gave were featured in Intercept stories from 2015, including an investigative series called The Drone Papers.Hale wrote an 11-page letter while in prison last week. He said that he was traumatized after his experience analysing drone video feeds in Afghanistan while serving in the Air Force and the attitude of many who were involved in the strikes, which caused numerous civilian casualties.Hale wrote that I believed that drone assassination was being used in order to mislead people that it keeps us safe. It may have been permissible [sic] to have assisted in killing those men whose languages I didn't understand or customs I didn't understand. I also might have contributed to their deaths by watching them die. How could that be considered honorable?Although Hale and his lawyers portray him as motivated by conscience and deep moral outrage, prosecutors suggested that he had more fundamental motives.According to Hale, I would totally be happy being a serious journalist that covers important topics in a critical manner. Most journalists are in terrible shape, have no social life, and are so dedicated, but I admire them as rock stars.Prosecutors claimed that Hale was not qualified to evaluate many documents he leaked, as they were related to programs that he had never worked on. They argued that this makes it less likely that he was acting in principle.Hale's motivation was not transparency, but self-aggrandizement. Prosecutors wrote that a significant sentence was necessary and appropriate.His disclosures are extensive and have earned him praise from other quarters. The Council on American-Islamic Relations stated in a friend-of-the-court brief that a Hale unclassified document about no-fly-list procedure helped the group's legal challenges and got at least eight U.S. citizens taken off no-fly/watchlists.CAIR was able to make specific claims for its clients through the availability of this information. Mr. Mr.Prosecutors were not able to prevent the government from pursuing Hale. In 2014, Hale did a six-month stint working for defense contractor Leidos as a Chinese linguist for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. The FBI raided Hale's Lorton, Va. home and took his computers.Hale was however not charged or arrested before 2019.Hales' attorneys claimed that the case had been dropped by President Obama and reopened under President Donald Trump. But prosecutors insisted that this was false in a Monday filing.Prosecutors stated that Hales leaks affected a large number of intelligence agencies in the United States. This required coordination to bring about charges.
