Silenced Page #7

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to the department of justice,

"find and fry the leakers.

whoever -- i don't care.

make an example of them.

burn them."

so, i get a phone call from

a former colleague, kirk wiebe,

saying, "tom, we need to meet."

and we met,

and he proceeded to tell me

that we had just

been raided by the fbi.

and i knew, sitting there

in that tavern, i was next

because they were

asking them about me.

i was now clearly

the primary target.

somehow, i had become --

i was considered the ringleader,

that somehow

i was now the source.

it was just

a matter of time.

it was not if.

it was when.

i had already been put under

extraordinary

electronic surveillance.

i was also physically tailed,

physically surveilled.

it was not unusual at all

to see two unmarked cars

at the end of the street.

so, the morning

of 28 november, 2007,

i'm getting ready

to go to work.

it's just after 7:00.

i'm about to get into my car.

[ vehicle approaches ]

[ vehicle door opens ]

[ radio chatter ]

and there's this very,

very loud knock on the door.

[ pounding on door ]

spouse was there.

she was about to take our son,

zachary, to middle school.

i mean, i sit here right now --

the look on her face.

[ radio chatter ]

they served me

with a warrant.

but i did cooperate with them.

that was for like

eight and a half, nine hours.

and they're asking questions,

and they had

one of the fbi agents

just simply taking notes.

your miranda rights

are read to you

'cause they said, "anything

you say will and can be

used against you."

well...it ultimately was.

so, every room had, like,

a number in it

just kind of hanging.

and they began

to go through everything.

it was clear that they

were looking for headers

or anything that showed, you

know, classification stamps.

and they actually

removed several books

that were actually listed

on the warrant.

that included james risen's

"state of war" book.

that, they actually --

that became evidence.

words and phrases,

and those words and phrases

would have included

"the secret program"

that i had disclosed to

the congressional investigators.

my understanding is, sometimes,

they will catalogue things

and they will actually,

they'll --

but they didn't do that.

i mean, they just

had stuff everywhere.

'cause this is --

it's so odd.

every single drawer...

...and cabinet.

they were down here

looking at the pots and pans.

reaching behind here,

they were underneath the sink.

seeing your entire life

and sort of the daily things

that you have in your life

and the things you touch,

and now they're being

touched by, you know, fbi agents

because you're up to no good

and they're inside

all of your cabinets and --

yeah, there's a distinct --

more than just a passing feeling

of being violated.

all these questions --

"are you gonna end up

indicting me?

what charges will they file?

what else will happen to me?"

i was separated

not long after this

and ended up having

to move out of the house...

and did so in january of 2008

and was living...

was living north of here

for almost the next year.

so...

yeah, that's part of the price

you pay as...it's...

that evening, i got a phone call

to report to nsa,

the special h.r. department,

and they suspended

my clearance.

i had to turn my badge in,

they suspended my clearance,

put me on administrative leave.

-they ended up charging me

with three counts of espionage,

and it turned out that they

had been investigating me

since the abc news interview

in 2007.

they've had it out for me

since december of 2007,

in part because of

the official work i was doing

as a senior staff member

of a congressional oversight

committee,

and they're trying

to make it look as though

i provided classified

information to the press.

-i worry very much

about john's well-being --

not just on

a professional level,

on a personal level,

on a human level.

it's hard

for any single individual,

no matter how strong you are,

to deal with this and come out

on the other side of it intact.

-when we were in

our last hearing,

called the cipa hearing,

the government asked

for what they call

a rule four conversation.

i had never heard of this.

but rule four,

wherever this is written,

allows the government

to have an in-camera

conversation with the judge,

meaning they get

a private conversation

about the case with the judge

without the defense attorneys

or the defendant being present,

and we don't have

the right to know

what that conversation

is about.

so, they had one of these

in-camera

rule four conversations.

the next thing i knew,

the judge came out

and ruled against us

on all of our motions.

so, where we thought

we were gonna have

this declassified information

with which

i could defend myself,

at the end of the day,

we ended up with nothing.

-there are pleas out there

that would be fine.

i would bless a plea

for one year of jail

to a "making false statement"

charge.

that's a tack-on charge that

they put on every indictment.

it's very different

to plead guilty

to an intelligence identity

protection act charge

and be the second person

in the entire country

who's ever plead guilty to that.

-my defense attorneys claim

that they reached out

to the prosecution unofficially,

just to see if there was

any room for negotiation.

and so, within 24 hours,

we had this offer on the table.

-for people who are facing

such life-altering decisions,

they deserve the straight dope

on what's going on.

-we are going to virginia.

i'm looking for the address,

which i have here.

-one of the lawyers,

the one that i like and respect

the most,

leaned over and said,

"if you were my brother,

i would tell you

to take the deal.

you're not gonna get

a better deal.

and if you don't take it,

you're gonna risk

spending most of the rest

of your life in prison."

-i feel like we're about

to stage an intervention,

which is really pathetic

that it's come to this.

but he e-mailed one of

the criminal defense attorneys

that, you know,

"i'm having second thoughts

about saying

i'd take the plea last night."

i told him,

"unless you convey that

to the lead attorneys,

they can go into this hearing

in exactly one hour from now

and say, "judge brinkema,

no need to have the hearing.

our guy has decided

to plead guilty."

-i thought about it

all weekend.

i changed my mind

several times.

and then, we had a hard deadline

of 5:
00 yesterday afternoon.

finally, at 6:
00,

they called me and said,

"it's time to fish

or cut bait."

i have two choices right now,

it seems to me.

one is to fire them

and find somebody else,

and the other

is to take this deal.

-okay.

-they said that they will mount

the most vigorous defense

in court that they can,

but they believe that i'll

lose and i'll get 6 to 12 years.

i feel like they've

come to the conclusion

that it doesn't matter

that there are different layers

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