---
kind: "section"
citation: "50 U.S.C. § 3122"
title: "50"
title_heading: "War and National Defense"
number: "3122"
heading: "Defenses and exceptions"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/50/3122"
units:
  - "Chapter 44 — National Security"
  - "Subchapter IV — Protection of Certain National Security Information"
---

# §3122. Defenses and exceptions

- (a) **Disclosure by United States of identity of covert agent—** It is a defense to a prosecution under [section 3121 of this title](/usc/50/3121.md) that before the commission of the offense with which the defendant is charged, the [United States](/usc/50/3126.md?p=9) had publicly acknowledged or revealed the [intelligence](/usc/50/3003.md?p=1) relationship to the [United States](/usc/50/3126.md?p=9) of the individual the disclosure of whose [intelligence](/usc/50/3003.md?p=1) relationship to the [United States](/usc/50/3126.md?p=9) is the basis for the prosecution.
- (b) **Conspiracy, misprision of felony, aiding and abetting, etc.**
  - (1) Subject to [paragraph (2)](#b-2), no person other than a person committing an offense under [section 3121 of this title](/usc/50/3121.md) shall be subject to prosecution under such section by virtue of section [2](/usc/18/2.md) or [4](/usc/18/4.md) of title 18 or shall be subject to prosecution for conspiracy to commit an offense under such section.
  - (2) [Paragraph (1)](#b-1) shall not apply (A) in the case of a person who acted in the course of a [pattern of activities](/usc/50/3126.md?p=10) intended to identify and expose [covert agents](/usc/50/3126.md?p=4) and with reason to believe that such activities would impair or impede the [foreign intelligence](/usc/50/3003.md?p=2) activities of the [United States](/usc/50/3126.md?p=9), or (B) in the case of a person who has [authorized](/usc/50/3126.md?p=2) access to [classified information](/usc/50/3126.md?p=1).
- (c) **Disclosure to select congressional committees on intelligence—** It shall not be an offense under [section 3121 of this title](/usc/50/3121.md) to transmit information described in such section directly to either congressional [intelligence](/usc/50/3003.md?p=1) committee.
- (d) **Disclosure by agent of own identity—** It shall not be an offense under [section 3121 of this title](/usc/50/3121.md) for an individual to [disclose](/usc/50/3126.md?p=3) information that solely identifies himself as a [covert agent](/usc/50/3126.md?p=4).

## Source credit

(July 26, 1947, ch. 343, title VI, § 602, as added Pub. L. 97–200, § 2(a), June 23, 1982, 96 Stat. 122; amended Pub. L. 107–306, title III, § 353(b)(9), Nov. 27, 2002, 116 Stat. 2402.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Codification

Section was formerly classified to section 422 of this title prior to editorial reclassification and renumbering as this section.

### Amendments

2002—Subsec. (c). Pub. L. 107–306 substituted “either congressional intelligence committee” for “the Select Committee on Intelligence of the Senate or to the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence of the House of Representatives”.