Crime History: Ellsberg indicted in Pentagon Papers leak
By: Scott McCabe
Examiner Staff Writer
June 28, 2009
CRIME HISTORY, PENTAGON PAPERS, ELLSBERG — On this day, June 28, in 1971, Daniel Ellsberg surrendered to the U.S. government to face charges for leaking the Pentagon Papers.
Ellsberg was part of the top-secret study of the history of U.S. involvement in Vietnam that showed that the American people had been deceived about the Vietnam War.
On June 13, 1971, the New York Times began publishing extracts that were embarrassing to Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson, but also to the Nixon administration, further damaging the war effort.
The Justice Department got an injunction to stop further publication of the papers, but the U.S. Supreme Court quickly ruled in favor of the press.
Ellsberg was charged with espionage, theft and conspiracy. He was taken into custody believing he would spend the rest of his life in prison. But the charges were dropped during his trial on May 11, 1973, after it was revealed that the Nixon administration conducted a campaign to discredit Ellsberg. He was illegally wiretapped, and his psychiatrist’s office was broken into in a search for Ellsberg’s medical file.
