Daniel Ellsberg’s decision to leak the Pentagon Papers made him an instant hero to opponents and a traitor in the eyes of the White House.

Daniel Ellsberg, the government analyst and whistleblower who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971, has died at 92.

There’s nothing official Washington loves better than a juicy whodunit.

FILE - In this Monday, June 9, 1997, file photo, G. Gordon Liddy kneels next to his Corvette outside the Fairfax, Va., radio station where he broadcasts his syndicated radio talk show. Liddy, a mastermind of the Watergate burglary and a radio talk show host after emerging from prison, has died at age 90. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds, File)WASHINGTON – G. Gordon Liddy, a mastermind of the Watergate burglary and a radio talk show host after emerging from prison, died Tuesday at age 90 at his daughter's home in Virginia. After his release from prison, Liddy became a popular, provocative and controversial radio talk show host. His syndicated radio talk show, broadcast from Virginia-based WJFK, was long one of the most popular in the country.

His account of the Vietnam War, “A Bright Shining Lie: John Paul Vann and America in Vietnam,” took him 15 years to write. Sheehan served as a war correspondent for United Press International and then the Times in the early days of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War in the 1960s. Soon, The Washington Post also began publishing stories about the Pentagon Papers. When Sheehan and Ellsberg bumped into each other in Manhattan in 1971, Ellsberg accused Sheehan of stealing the papers, just as he had. Neil and Susan Sheehan had two daughters, Catherine Bruno, and Maria Gregory Sheehan, both of Washington and two grandsons, Nicholas Sheehan Bruno, 13, and Andrew Phillip Bruno, 11.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will find out Monday Jan. 4, 2021, whether he can be extradited from the U.K. to the U.S. to face espionage charges over the publication of secret American military documents. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham, File)LONDON – WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will find out Monday whether he can be extradited from the U.K. to the U.S. to face espionage charges over the publication of secret American military documents. U.S. prosecutors indicted the 49-year-old Assange on 17 espionage charges and one charge of computer misuse that carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison. His legal team argued that Assange would, if extradited, likely face solitary confinement that would put him at a heightened risk of suicide. Assange and his legal team will be hoping that developments in the U.S. bring an end to his ordeal if the judge grants the U.S. extradition request.

Supporters of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange take part in a protest outside the Central Criminal Court, the Old Bailey, in London, Monday, Sept. 14, 2020. (AP Photo/Matt Dunham)LONDON – An American constitutional law expert said Thursday that the United States indicted WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange under an “extraordinarily broad” spying law that has been used in the past for politically motivated prosecutions. Leaker Daniel Ellsberg faced 12 Espionage Act charges and faced up to 115 years in prison, but the charges were dismissed in 1973 because of government misconduct against him. He said it was not relevant to his analysis of the Espionage Act, and noted he was a very junior lawyer at the time. He disagreed with a suggestion by a prosecution lawyer that Assange took a “cavalier attitude” to redaction.

He told London's Central Criminal Court that the pair had very comparable political opinions. The dump, similarly coordinated at various stages with some of the world's leading newspapers, was arguably the biggest single leak since the Pentagon Papers four decades before. Like Assange, Ellsberg faced the prospect of decades, at least, in prison. He also said that Assange took great care not to willfully expose anyone to harm. Assange has been in a British prison since he was ejected from his refuge at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in April 2019.

Bailyn, one of the countrys leading historians of the early U.S., has died at age 97. Bailyn was best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution, among the most influential historical works of the past few decades. (AP Photo/Julia Malakie, File)NEW YORK Bernard Bailyn, a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and educator of lasting influence whose The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution transformed how many thought about the countrys formation, has died at 97. This logic of rebellion led the founders not only to defy their colonial rulers, but to envision Americas destiny in the context of world history, Bailyn wrote. An acknowledged landmark in scholarship, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution won the Pulitzer Prize and Bancroft Prize in 1968.

– The government must release some documents that will shed light on two grand juries that sat in Boston nearly 50 years ago to investigate the leak of the Pentagon Papers, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs said in her written decision that she would grant a “limited disclosure” of the grand jury materials but not allow the “unfettered” access Lepore sought. If the government objects to the release of other documents, it has 60 days to explain why they should stay under wraps, Burroughs said. Burroughs said she was allowing the documents to be released “reluctantly,” expressing concern it could have “unintended consequences" or open the door to the release of other secret grand jury documents in the future. Among those who supported their release was Daniel Ellsberg, the former government consultant who gave the papers to The New York Times, The Washington Post and other newspapers.