Defendants were convicted of sabotage and destruction of government property in the Eastern District of Tennessee. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the sabotage convictions and remanded for resentencing.

In the dark of night on July 28, 2012, in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, an 82 year-old nun and two Army veterans, ages 57 and 63, cut their way through four layers of fences and reached a building where the Department of Energy stores enriched uranium. There the trio spray-painted antiwar slogans, hung crime tape and banners with biblical phrases, splashed blood, and sang hymns. When a security guard finally arrived, the group offered him bread and read aloud a prepared message about “transform[ing] weapons into real life-giving alternatives to build true peace.” Then the group surrendered to the guard’s custody.

The group’s actions caused about $8,000 of damage to government property. The government eventually . . . charged them with violating the peacetime provision of the Sabotage Act, 18 U.S.C. § 2155(a), which Congress enacted during World War II. That provision applies only if the defendant acted “with intent to injure, interfere with, or obstruct the national defense,” and authorizes a sentence of up to 20 years. A jury convicted the defendants on the sabotage count and the injury-to-property count. On appeal, the defendants argue that, as a matter of law, they lacked the intent necessary to violate the Sabotage Act. We agree; and thus we reverse their sabotage convictions and remand for resentencing.

The relevant facts are undisputed. The Y–12 National Security Complex is located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Although the Department of Energy administers the facility, private contractors perform virtually all of its operations. The facility’s missions are several: to manufacture certain components for nuclear weapons; to test the reliability of certain components for nuclear weapons; and to store highly enriched uranium, much of which is eventually “down-blended” for civilian use.

The facility is not used to store nuclear weapons and not otherwise used to manufacture them. No military operations are conducted there.

. . . The defendants challenge the sufficiency of the evidence supporting their convictions under § 2155 (a) of the Sabotage Act. That subsection provides:

Whoever, with intent to injure, interfere with, or obstruct the national defense of the United States, willfully injures, destroys, contaminates or infects, or attempts to so injure, destroy, contaminate or infect any national-defense material, national-defense premises, or national-defense utilities, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both[.]

The defendants concede that the government proved one element of this offense: that they “injure[d] . . . national defense premises[.]” But the defendants dispute the other element, namely, that they acted “with intent to . . . interfere with . . . the national defense”—which is what the government argues it proved at trial. We must affirm the defendants’ convictions if, based upon the evidence admitted at trial, any rational jury could find beyond a reasonable doubt that they acted with intent to interfere with the national defense when they injured Y–12’s premises.

The answer to that question depends on what it means, for purposes of § 2155(a), to “interfere with . . . the national defense.” We begin with the term “the national defense,” which the Sabotage Act does not define. But the Supreme Court has defined that term for purposes of a companion statute, the Espionage Act (which likewise does not define it). In Gorin v. United States, the Court held that “the national defense” is “a generic concept of broad connotations, referring to the military and naval establishments and the related activities of national preparedness.” We think it best to adopt the Court’s definition absent some good reason to reject it; and like the Tenth Circuit, we see none.

. . . § 2155 (a) does not require that the defendants’ actions be practically certain to affect the national defense immediately or within a certain time. When proving intent based on practical certainty, however, the government must prove that the defendant knew that his actions were practically certain to have some effect on the national defense at some time. And so far as the record shows here, the defendants’ actions in this case had zero effect, at the time of their actions or anytime afterwards, on the nation’s ability to wage war or defend against attack. Those actions were wrongful, to be sure, and the defendants have convictions for destruction of government property as a result of them. But the government did not prove the defendants guilty of sabotage.

. . . Finally, we reject the government’s argument that the defendants intended to interfere with the national defense by seeking to create “bad publicity” for Y–12. First Amendment issues aside, it takes more than bad publicity to injure the national defense. The defendants’ convictions under§ 2155 (a) must be reversed.

Questions:-

1. Identify the federal statute used in this criminal prosecution.
2. If they are not guilty of sabotage, what other potential crimes did the defendants commit?