Ex-NSA worker pleads not guilty to lying in investigation of classified leaks to newspaper
By APFriday, April 23, 2010
Ex-NSA worker pleads not guilty in leak case
BALTIMORE — A former senior executive at the National Security Agency has pleaded not guilty to charges that he lied and obstructed justice in an investigation of leaks of classified information to a newspaper.
Fifty-three-year-old Thomas Drake entered the plea Friday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore. Prosecutors say Drake was a source for many articles about the NSA in newspaper stories, including articles that contained classified information. Court documents do not identify the newspaper.
A federal indictment charges that Drake used a nongovernment e-mail account to transmit classified and unclassified information. Authorities say Drake lied to federal agents about what he’d done.
His trial is scheduled for Oct. 18.
