Tony Russo, who helped Daniel Ellsberg copy and release the Pentagon Papers to the New York Times and other papers died Wednesday, August 6, in his home in Suffolk, Virginia.

Russo, 71, had been in poor health Since suffering a heart attack three years ago. Suffolk was his home town, but he lived in Santa Monica fir many years.

Russo and Ellsberg were friends and colleagues at the RAND Corporation in Santa Monica. which was known to be one of the architects of the Vietnam war. “The Pentagon Papers,” as the Times dubbed them, was a secret history of the war that had been commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara, and told a very different story from the bland press releases that were issued by the Pentagon.

The government went to court to block the Times’ publication of the “papers” but failed. The Times subsequently sold a million copies of a paperback version.

It also indicted Ellsberg and Russo on charges of espionage, larceny and conspiracy. If they had been found guilty, Ellsberg could have been sentenced to 115 years in prison, and Russo to 35 years. But on May 11, 1973, a federal court judge dismissed all charges against them.

Stanley k. Sheinbaum, a Brentwood resident and ardent advocate of the First Amendment and the people’s right to know, headed the defense fund that paid for Russo and Ellsberg’s attorneys. .
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