Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) says Julian Assange, founder of terror-assisting organization Wikileaks, should be prosecuted under the Espionage Act of 1917.

When WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange released his latest document trove—more than 250,000 secret State Department cables—he intentionally harmed the U.S. government. The release of these documents damages our national interests and puts innocent lives at risk. He should be vigorously prosecuted for espionage.

The law Mr. Assange continues to violate is the Espionage Act of 1917. That law makes it a felony for an unauthorized person to possess or transmit “information relating to the national defense which information the possessor has reason to believe could be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of any foreign nation.”

The Espionage Act also makes it a felony to fail to return such materials to the U.S. government. Importantly, the courts have held that “information relating to the national defense” applies to both classified and unclassified material. Each violation is punishable by up to 10 years in prison.

No doubt aware of this law, and despite firm warnings, Mr. Assange went ahead and released the cables on Nov. 28…

None of this stopped Mr. Assange. That he is breaking the law and must be stopped from doing more harm is clear. I also believe a prosecution would be successful.

Senator Feinstein is right: Julian Assange has knowingly broken the law and should be fully prosecuted. I’m not sure that it would be successful, however. Blagojevich was unbelievably corrupt and yet was only convicted on one count. Ahmed Gailani was obviously guilty of murder but was cleared on all but one charge.

All it takes is one juror who sympathizes with Assange. All it takes is the judge sympathizing with Wikileaks to force the trial a certain way. That’s all it takes.

That said, it’s worth a try. Good on Feinstein for coming out in favor of prosecuting Assange.