By- Srushti sharma
These leaks are the latest in a long line of unexpected disclosures of classified US documents.
Some of them changed the course of US history and were hailed as heroic - while others landed their leakers in prison for years.
The Pentagon Papers
The release of the Pentagon Papers is perhaps the most famous and impactful leak of classified documents in US history.
The NSA leaks
In 2013, Edward Snowden leaked a tranche of intelligence documents to the Guardian and the Washington Post, showing that the US government was illegally collecting citizens' phone data.
Chelsea Manning and Wikileaks
The trove of documents provided by Manning contained details about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as a tranche of diplomatic cables.
The Reality Winner case
The document detailed one of Russia's efforts to interfere in the 2016 US presidential election by employing a phishing scheme against local election officials.