Pentagon Papers leaker: ‘Clearly unconstitutional’ classified labeling ‘negates’ First Amendment

Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the military’s secret 7,000 page history of the Vietnam War, joins Andrea Mitchell with his reaction to 21-year-old member of the Massachusetts Air National Guardsman Jack Teixeira’s classified documents leak, questioning whether they should have been classified to begin with. “Look at the information, for instance, that's come out in the press so far, and ask yourself, which of those items should still look classified in one year? Or two years? I would say none of them. Which of them will be top secret, 10, 15, 20 years from now? All of them,” says Ellsberg. “It's a system that just negates the First Amendment, and the law under which they do that is very clearly unconstitutional. But the Supreme Court has never chosen to address that.”April 18, 2023