Why the U.S. Secrecy Surrounding Evan Gershkovich?

Last Friday, a Russian court, operating in secret, convicted Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich of espionage and sentenced him to 16 years in a Russian penal colony. Ever since Gershkovich’s arrest in March 2023, I have written extensively about the case.

The Journal and U.S. officials have responded to the verdict and sentence in the same way they have responded ever since Gershkovich’s arrest. They deny that he is a spy and say that he was simply doing his job as a reporter when he ...