I acknowledge he has no protection under the Whistleblower Act, having read a bit more. But let me pose a hypothetical.
You find a Top Secret folder lying on a park bench, with records of a horrific crime by a respectable cabal of executive, judiciary, and legislative branch members. The president and his staff, a few FISA judges, and some high-placed congressional cronies have conspired to brainwash everyone with a magic potion, and seize total dictatorial control of the US, then the world. They are using the loose oversight of post-9/11 homeland security to get away with it.
So is it a crime to send that proof to Glenn Greenwald? I'd argue that there are theoretically classified documents that it would not be a crime to make public, and all you can say is Snowden's leak doesn't fit the bill.
Yes it would be a crime. The fact that you think it shouldn't or that there are instance where you think it shouldn't doesn't mean it isn't. The statutes are pretty clear.
"Whoever having unauthorized possession of, access to, or control over any document, writing, code book, signal book, sketch, photograph, photographic negative, blueprint, plan, map, model, instrument, appliance, or note relating to the national defense, or information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation, willfully communicates, delivers, transmits or causes to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted, or attempts to communicate, deliver, transmit or cause to be communicated, delivered, or transmitted the same to any person not entitled to receive it, or willfully retains the same and fails to deliver it to the officer or employee of the United States entitled to receive it"
" Whoever knowingly and willfully communicates, furnishes, transmits, or otherwise makes available to an unauthorized person, or publishes, or uses in any manner prejudicial to the safety or interest of the United States or for the benefit of any foreign government to the detriment of the United States any classified information—"
The law you cite clearly says the information must be "relating to national defense."
In the example I have created, while wildly fantastic and unbelievable, the information does not relate to national defense at all. It is simply a record of a conspiracy committed by powerful people, which was "classified" by those same powerful people.
I was presuming that the justification for any of the actions would be national defense and at least have a tenuous connection to national defense as would be the case in any realistic scenario. It is not hard to come up with one even for your outlandish example.
You find a Top Secret folder lying on a park bench, with records of a horrific crime by a respectable cabal of executive, judiciary, and legislative branch members. The president and his staff, a few FISA judges, and some high-placed congressional cronies have conspired to brainwash everyone with a magic potion, and seize total dictatorial control of the US, then the world. They are using the loose oversight of post-9/11 homeland security to get away with it.
So is it a crime to send that proof to Glenn Greenwald? I'd argue that there are theoretically classified documents that it would not be a crime to make public, and all you can say is Snowden's leak doesn't fit the bill.