The prosecutors said that Mr. Kiriakou's intimation that the disclosure was an "accident or mistake" contradicted his plea that he had willfully disclosed the information.
Prosecutors had contended that they should be required to prove only that he willfully disclosed defense-related files to win a conviction under the spying law.
The U.S. has completed negotiations on an agreement that will grant EU citizens the right to seek reparation in U.S. courts if personal data their home countries share with the U.S. government for law enforcement purposes is willfully disclosed.
"The Justice Department takes seriously cases in which government employees and contractors entrusted with classified information are suspected of willfully disclosing such classified information to those not entitled to it, and we will do so in these cases as well".
"The Justice Department has always taken seriously cases in which government employees and contractors entrusted with classified information are suspected of willfully disclosing such classified information to those not entitled to it," a department official explained.
In a criminal complaint filed in June, federal prosecutors charged Edward Snowden with theft, "unauthorized communication of national defense information" and willfully disclosing classified communications intelligence "to an unauthorized person".
Under Title 18 of the U.S. Criminal Code, Section 793, a person who lawfully possesses or has access to "information respecting the national defense," and willfully discloses that information to someone not authorized to receive it, may be subject to a fine of up to $250,000, imprisonment of up to ten years, or both.
Title 18 U.S.C. § 2511 1)(a) applies to the person who willfully intercepts such communications and subsection (c) to any person who, knowing or having reason to know that the communication was obtained through an illegal interception, willfully discloses its contents.
As it is now, the measure calls for criminal penalties for anyone who "knowingly and willfully discloses, or attempts to disclose, any classified information acquired as a result of such person's authorized access to classified information to a person who is not authorized access to such classified information, knowing that the person is not authorized access to such classified information".
The measure called for criminal penalties for anyone who "knowingly and willfully discloses, or attempts to disclose, any classified information acquired as a result of such person's authorized access to classified information to a person who is not authorized access to such classified information, knowing that the person is not authorized access to such classified information".
The Innocence Project report found that Mr. Anderson willfully failed to disclose police notes that another man committed the murder, concealed from the trial judge that he did not provide the full police report and advised his successor as prosecutor "to oppose all of Mr. Morton's postconviction motions for DNA testing".
