“People are scrambling” to see if their sensitive information has been accessed by Musk’s programmers, said one federal intelligence employee.

Interestingly, unlike cases where publication like this was in the public interest, as with Reality Winner, Elon Musk has yet to be arrested.

  • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
    2819·
    5 days ago

    Prosecution for leaking of classified information is complicated.

    Because… the inherent act of doing so confirms that something was classified information. Instead they are either talked to behind the scenes or they get black helicoptered.

    There is also the argument that the POTUS is the be all end all of what is and is not classified and since musk is basically the POTUS. Optimally there is paperwork associated with this but it gets into one of those wonderful “gentleman’s agreement” grey zones.

    That is why you’ll never see someone get charges filed against them for admitting that nixon was actually killed by aliens from Rygel 7 and replaced with an android. Instead they will just

    • Zaktor@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      57·
      5 days ago

      This is a fantasy. People get charged for leaking classified information all the time. It’s just a crime, not a spy thriller.

      • NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip
        312·
        5 days ago

        People get charged for the act of leaking classified information. Hell, our president (ugh) did.

        But the key is that what they actually leaked is never discussed outside of closed door sessions. And it is almost always as part of a lesser, easier to prove, treason or espionage case.

        But actually charging someone because they talked about the space aliens? THAT becomes a huge problem. And that is what we are looking at here.

        • Zaktor@sopuli.xyzEnglish
          13·
          5 days ago

          We are very much not taking about space aliens and “people get charged but the court case doesn’t release classified information” is very different from them not getting charged or getting disappeared.

    • floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      3·
      5 days ago

      the inherent act of doing so confirms that something was classified information.

      Does it? You can investigate to verify if there was a “leak” - aka some communication happened, and if it did, whether it was classified or just a dick pic