(This post is from our new blog: Unofficial Sources.)
Stephen Kim, a former State Department official who last year pleaded guilty to leaking classified information about North Korea to a Fox News reporter, was released from prison today after 10 months of confinement.
The indictment and conviction of Kim, part of a crackdown by the Obama administration on leakers and whistleblowers, involved the government also accusing the reporter, James Rosen, of being a potential “co-conspirator” in the Espionage Act case. The government secretly collected emails Rosen exchanged with Kim in 2009 as well as records of their phone calls. These actions led to widespread criticism in the media that the government was infringing on first amendment protections for a free press, and were the focus of a lengthy investigation by The Intercept.
Kim, an expert on North Korea and its nuclear weapons program, was released from a federal prison in Maryland this morning and a few hours later checked into a halfway house in Washington, D.C. His sister, Yuri, who lives in Zurich, said in an email to The Intercept, “We are so happy to have Stephen back in our embrace again. I cannot wait to hug him again.”
Read Also:
- Stephen Kim Spoke To A Reporter. Now He’s In Jail. This Is His Story.
- The Surrender (a short documentary by Stephen Maing)
- After Petraeus Plea Deal, Lawyer Demands Release of Stephen Kim
- Petraeus Plea Deal Reveals Two-Tier Justice System for Leaks
Photo: AP Photos
IT’S EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT.
What we’re seeing right now from Donald Trump is a full-on authoritarian takeover of the U.S. government.
This is not hyperbole.
Court orders are being ignored. MAGA loyalists have been put in charge of the military and federal law enforcement agencies. The Department of Government Efficiency has stripped Congress of its power of the purse. News outlets that challenge Trump have been banished or put under investigation.
Yet far too many are still covering Trump’s assault on democracy like politics as usual, with flattering headlines describing Trump as “unconventional,” “testing the boundaries,” and “aggressively flexing power.”
The Intercept has long covered authoritarian governments, billionaire oligarchs, and backsliding democracies around the world. We understand the challenge we face in Trump and the vital importance of press freedom in defending democracy.
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
IT’S BEEN A DEVASTATING year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
That’s where you come in. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity in time to hit the ground running in 2026?
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
I’M BEN MUESSIG, The Intercept’s editor-in-chief. It’s been a devastating year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history.
We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking.
In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow.
That’s where you come in. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity in time to hit the ground running in 2026?
We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us?
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