In a CNN segment about the current political fallout surrounding Hillary Clinton and the ongoing leaks of the Podesta emails, anchor Chris Cuomo claims that it’s illegal for anyone but the media to read WikiLeaks.
This is incorrect.
However, in previous leaks, government employees were threatened with their jobs if they did view such material. In a December 2010 leak of classified military material, The New York Times reports the Obama administration and the Department of Defense ordered federal employees and contractors to not view them unless they had the security clearance.
But for the average American, viewing the material is protected under the First Amendment.
The above video was shared on a Reddit thread dedicated to conspiracy theories. In the thread, Redditors took digs at Cuomo for spreading false information so that the mainstream media could control the narrative of the Podesta WikiLeaks.
As one Redditor agentf90 put it:
How dare you try to read them for yourself instead of digest what we feed you!”