Graymail

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Graymail is a form of coercion similar to blackmail wherein a defendant threatens revelation of state secrets during a trial. Graymail is used as a defense tactic, usually in an attempt to force the government to drop a case to avoid revealing national secrets. [1]

Contents

Overview

Graymail can occur in two ways:

  1. To straightforwardly blackmail the government, forcing it to drop the case using the threat that if the trial proceeds the defendant will reveal classified information he or she already knows.
  2. To request use of classified material, e.g. as evidence, in the trial. The defendant speculates that the government will be unwilling to make the material fully available to the case, and that this will raise the possibility, in the eyes of the judge or jury, that the unreleased material might clear the defendant, making it difficult to prove guilt. [2]

In the United States, the Classified Information Procedures Act of 1980, also known as the Graymail Law, was designed to counter the second tactic above by allowing judges to review classified material in camera , so that the prosecution can proceed without fear of publicly disclosing sensitive intelligence. [3]

Examples

See also

References

  1. John Jacob Nutter, Ph. D. (4 December 2009). The CIA's Black Ops: Covert Action, Foreign Policy, and Democracy. Prometheus Books. ISBN   978-1-61592-397-7.
  2. David Corn (6 February 2006). "Will Scooter Libby Graymail the CIA?". The Nation . Retrieved 28 July 2011.
  3. "crimesofwar.org". Archived from the original on 2006-02-10. Retrieved 2006-02-08.
  4. nationaljournal.com Archived 2010-09-22 at the Wayback Machine 2006
  5. James Sterngold, "Libby hires expert in criminal law on national secrets", SFGate , November 22 2005
  6. David Stout and Neil Lewis, "Libby Guilty of Lying in C.I.A. Leak Case", The New York Times , March 6, 2007
  7. BBC News
  8. Anderson, Curt. "Attorney in Florida case seeks NSA phone records". AP. Archived from the original on 16 June 2013. Retrieved 28 September 2013.
  9. Drum, Kevin. "NSA Claims It Doesn't Track Movements of Cell Phone Users". Mother Jones. Retrieved 28 September 2013.