I tried to look through a lot of cases. It seemed like most every case was leaking information, threats of actual violence, stolen valor, or other generally agreed upon crimes. There's truth to the notion that a government is more likely to look for crimes if you're a specific person, but I don't know of anyone in the modern US who goes to jail for lying about things the army has done. I use the word "lying" because Russia courts make the claim that that's what happened here.

Also, there are more recent cases of Russia imprisoning someone for essentially this same crime.

[–] TankieTanuki@hexbear.net 20 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The US prosecuted activists for "sowing discord" this year. That's basically the same thing as going after someone for lying.

[–] GarbageShoot@hexbear.net 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Assange wasn't leaking information, he was reporting on information that had already been leaked.

[–] SeaJ@lemm.ee 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The prosecution provided evidence that WikiLeaks helped Manning crack a password which would involve them in the leak itself. So saying he was just reporting on it is debatable.

[–] GarbageShoot@hexbear.net 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Innocent until proven guilty

[–] SeaJ@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

He was found guilty...

[–] GivingEuropeASpook@hexbear.net 4 points 1 year ago

Like Russia, the US prosecutes you for exposing the truth of what the US army does abroad. arguing that classified information keeps US citizens safe in their "work" abroad – not unique to the US but the US is the dominant world power still so it gets a lot of criticism from the left. It's hard to get the right perspective when you live in an imperial core that has done a lot to insulate its civilian populace from the impacts of conflict, and governments don't like it when whistleblowers make it easier.