When Espionage Means The Death Penalty

Civics 101

NHPR

Government, History, Society & Culture

4.2 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 8 August 2023

⏱️ 26 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In June of 2023, Donald Trump was charged with 37 counts of alleged mishandling of classified documents, as well as obstruction of justice. Of those 37 counts, 31 are alleged violations of the Espionage Act. Now, since its passage after World War I, thousands of people have been investigated for violating the Espionage Act, including Julian Assange, Daniel Ellsberg, and Donald Trump. However, only two people have been executed for violating it during peacetime; Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. This episode features Anne Sebba, author of Ethel Rosenberg: A Cold War Tragedy, and Jake Kobrick, Associate Historian at the Federal Judicial Center. It explains the Espionage Act of 1917, the accusations against the Rosenbergs, the twists and turns of their trial, and their execution in 1953. CLICK HERE: Visit our website to see all of our episodes, donate to the podcast, sign up for our newsletter, get free educational materials, and more! To see Civics 101 in book form, check out A User's Guide to Democracy: How America Works by Hannah McCarthy and Nick Capodice, featuring illustrations by Tom Toro. Check out our other weekly NHPR podcast, Outside/In - we think you'll love it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	One of the greatest peacetime spy dramas in the nation's history reaches its climax.
0:12.0	As Julius Rosenberg and Morton Sobel convicted of revealing atomic secrets to the Russians
0:17.4	enter the federal building in New York to hear their doom.
0:21.0	I'm McCapidice.
0:22.5	I'm Hannah McCarty.
0:24.5	And this is Civics 101.
0:26.7	In June of 2023, Donald Trump was charged with 37 counts of alleged mishandling of
0:32.6	classified documents as well as obstruction of justice.
0:36.8	Of those 37 counts, 31 are alleged violations of the Espionage Act.
0:43.7	Today we're going to talk about that act and we're going to do it through the most famous
0:47.6	so far, Espionage trial in US history.
0:52.1	This is the trial of the first ever US citizens to be executed for espionage during peacetime,
0:58.5	Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.
1:01.6	And Hannah, this trial has a lot in it.
1:05.4	It's tied to communism.
1:06.5	The communist party of the United States is a fifth column if there ever was one.
1:10.6	McCarty is the Manhattan Project and the Cold War.
1:19.0	So this is an espionage case, right?
1:20.9	Yeah.
1:21.9	It would be best before we get to know who Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were and what
1:27.0	they did to understand what espionage actually is.
1:33.3	After the US entered World War I, President Woodrow Wilson signed the 1917 Espionage Act.
	...

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