According to journalist Jack Kelly:

Justice department lawyers think journalists who publish information which damages national security can be prosecuted under the Espionage Act. Case law supports them. In 1985, the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held unanimously the Espionage Act applies to "whoever" transmits national defense information "to a person not entitled to receive it."

Prosecutors will first use the Plame precedent to get journalists to disclose their sources. The NSA leak investigation is said to be moving rapidly, and to focus on two Democratic senators, Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia and Dick Durbin of Illinois.