§3122 — Title 50 War and National Defense | U.S. Code

Summary

Protects people from being charged for revealing that someone worked for U.S. intelligence in these situations: the U.S. had already made that relationship public before the disclosure; the person gave the information directly to a congressional intelligence committee; or the person only revealed that they themselves were a covert agent. Only the person who actually made the disclosure can be charged, except if someone repeatedly tried to expose covert agents knowing it would harm U.S. intelligence or if they had permission to see classified information.

Title 50, §3122

War and National Defense — Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)It is a defense to a prosecution under section 3121 of this title that before the commission of the offense with which the defendant is charged, the United States had publicly acknowledged or revealed the intelligence relationship to the United States of the individual the disclosure of whose intelligence relationship to the United States is the basis for the prosecution.

(b)(1)Subject to paragraph (2), no person other than a person committing an offense under section 3121 of this title shall be subject to prosecution under such section by virtue of section 2 or 4 of title 18 or shall be subject to prosecution for conspiracy to commit an offense under such section.

(2)Paragraph (1) shall not apply (A) in the case of a person who acted in the course of a pattern of activities intended to identify and expose covert agents and with reason to believe that such activities would impair or impede the foreign intelligence activities of the United States, or (B) in the case of a person who has authorized access to classified information.

(c)It shall not be an offense under section 3121 of this title to transmit information described in such section directly to either congressional intelligence committee.

(d)It shall not be an offense under section 3121 of this title for an individual to disclose information that solely identifies himself as a covert agent.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Codification Section was formerly classified to section 422 of this title prior to editorial reclassification and renumbering as this section.

Amendments

2002—Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 107–306 substituted “either congressional intelligence committee” for “the Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate or to the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of Representatives”.

§3122 Defenses and exceptions

Summary

Title 50, §3122

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

Amendments

Citations & Metadata