Is it illegal to leak false information?

[Kaleva]

Let us assume that what the WH claims to be 'fake news' the media is reporting is based on false information provided by sources who know it to be false. Is it a crime to intentionally mislead the media? Does the info have to be accurate, at least in part, in order for a leaker to be prosecuted?

[Warpy]

1. If it were, most Republicans would be in prison

Sadly, it isn't. You can even call lies and propaganda "news."

[pat_k]

2. AFAIK, to be an unlawful leak, it must be...

... release of documents the leaker is explicitly prohibited under civil or criminal law from making public, or accounts of events or conversations the leaker is explicitly prohibited from divulging to the public.

Leaking a phony document might be a leak if the document were part of a sting operation testing a suspected leaker, but things like giving a reporter a "first hand" account of a confidential conversation that never happened or event not actually witnessed is not leaking, it's lying. (I am not aware of any means by which someone could be held civilly or criminally liable for spinning tall tales for the public or releasing fabricated documents (unless the story or document could be shown to be an incitement to violence or akin to shouting 'fire" in a crowded place.)

Divulging accounts of actual events or conversations aren't necessarily leaks either. I don't see how divulging the fact that DT watches cable news and pund-idiots all the time (and bitterly talks back to TV), or that DT wanders around in his bathrobe, or that visitors weren't being shown the way out (because apparently most DT staff didn't know where to go themselves), or that appointees didn't know how to operate lights, could possibly be a civil or criminal offense.