"Misprision of felony" is one of those shiny objects the birthers discovered a few years back. The concept is knowing about a felony and not reporting it. Douglas Vogt's court action in Washington State was framed as a report of his belief that a felony was committed in regard to President Obama's birth certificate, and his desire to obtain a certification from the court that he wasn't guilty of hiding it.
Birthers aimed misprision at their opponents and members of Congress, saying that they knew Obama had forged his birth certificate and were covering it up.
Under federal law, "misprision of felony" is codified in 18 U.S. Code § 4, which says:
Whoever, having knowledge of the actual commission of a felony cognizable by a court of the United States, conceals and does not as soon as possible make known the same to some judge or other person in civil or military authority under the United States, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than three years, or both.
They want the Obots dragged away and hung for this crime (or perhaps for the more severe "misprision of treason"). The reason this is nonsense is that the opponents of birthers do not believe that there is any felony, nor that they have any information indicating the commission of a crime. The courts have ruled that in order to be guilty of misprision of felony, a person must actively cover up the felony. Anti-birthers widely discuss birther claims, and nothing is covered up by anybody. Arguing that someone is wrong is not "covering up."
However, let's consider another possible charge of misprision of felony, this time on the birther side, and in particular against Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The felony is possession of classified documents, codified as 18 U.S. Code § 1924 - Unauthorized removal and retention of classified documents or material. According to news reports, Dennis Montgomery came to Sheriff Arpaio and stated that he had made copies of data developed by him under contract with the CIA. The very existence of this material was classified. Montgomery then offered to mine the data for Arpaio for money.
Sheriff Arpaio paid Montgomery for information, and did not inform the US Attorney or the CIA of Montgomery's representations. Further, Sheriff Arpaio assigned Montgomery a confidential informant number, and instituted procedures whereby even people in his own department were unaware of possible felonious activity by Montgomery. Arpaio knew of crimes Montgomery claimed to have committed, and actively participated in keeping it secret. That sounds like misprision of felony to me and I am not the only one thinking this. Phoenix New Times Reporter Stephen Lemons, somewhat of an expert on the misdeeds of Joe Arpaio, raised the issue (after this article was initially published) based on a discussion with former U. S. Attorney for Arizona, Paul Charlton:
Charlton offers a couple of possible federal statutes that could apply, including 18 USC 371, conspiracy “to commit any offense against” the U.S. government.
“Even if the information is not classified, it is still conspiracy,” Charlton says.
“Ask any narco who is currently in prison for conspiracy to transport, sell, or buy cocaine when in fact there was no cocaine, only a DEA agent pretending to deal in cocaine.”
Then there is 18 USC 4, which has the rather exotic title “misprision of a felony.”
Charlton says this would entail Arpaio’s not alerting, say, the FBI upon learning that someone wanted to sell him classified information.
