US vs. Daniel Ellsberg (United States District Court, Central District of California, 1973) - Facts of the case vs. mythology

Asking genuinely in good faith: Based on the details of the case (links below) rather than the historical narrative which has become ubiquitous, had the case not been dismissed with prejudice as a result of the activities of the White House ‘Special Investigations Unit’ aka the White House Plumbers coming to light, how strong was the government’s case against Daniel Ellsberg and Anthony Russo vis-á-vis the Pentagon Papers leak?

Ellsberg’s defense claimed that the copy of the study Ellsberg copied and disseminated wasn’t government property but the personal papers of three former DOD officials. The testimony of Morton H. Halperin describes how a copy of the study was taken into private custody at the end of the Johnson administration, which was essentially an interpretation of “common practice.”

Furthermore, the defense claimed that no statute in law regulated the control of classified government data, only executive actions.

Another defense claim was that the government couldn’t prove that the creation of the study — which took 6+ months and utilized at least six government employees and a couple dozen defense consultants — cost more than $100 to create (as a result of a ‘black’ budget with no accounting controls), and therefore the theft of the study could not rise to the level of a felony.

Last, Ellsberg testified that he had never been denied access to the study, but Leslie H. Gelb, who oversaw the Pentagon Papers study, subsequently testified as a prosecution rebuttal witness that he had twice denied Ellsberg access to the Pentagon Papers study.

Had the White House SIU activities, which egregiously violated Ellsberg’s civil rights, not come to light and caused the dismissal of the charges, could Ellsberg have been vulnerable to a perjury charge based on Gelb’s contradictory testimony, and how weak or strong overall was the prosecution’s case?

• {Indictment}(http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/FTrials/ellsberg/indictment.html)
• {Selected trial testimony transcripts}(http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/FTrials/ellsberg/trialtestimony.html)
• {Selected transcript of Morton Halperin testimony}(http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/ellsberg/halperintestimony.html)
• {Article describing Gelb’s testimony}(https://www.nytimes.com/1973/04/21/archives/former-u-s-aide-rebuts-ellsberg.html)
• {Case dismissal - The ruling}(http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/FTrials/ellsberg/judgerules.html)
• {Case chronology}(http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/FTrials/ellsberg/pentagonpaperschrono.html)