Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A defensive tactic in an espionage trial whereby the accused threatens to reveal secret information unless the charges are dropped.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun US, law The threatened exposure of state secrets in order to manipulate legal proceedings.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[gray + (black)mail.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From gray + mail, by analogy with blackmail

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Examples

  • In the past, defense lawyers have used what is some call graymail to demand all sorts of sensitive information that the government doesn't want to make it public, then they simply have to walk away from the case.

    CNN Transcript Mar 10, 2006 2006

  • The majority of what was left was something we refer to as graymail, and when thinking about how to deal with graymail, it became clear that the fundamental problem wasn't just which things to accept or reject.

    Site Home tzink 2012

  • A Threat in Black and White graymail Prosecutors, on the other hand, say their requests for secrecy are valid and prevent the defendant from bullying prosecutors into dropping their case for fear of disclosing sensitive information, a practice commonly referred to as "graymail."

    Week in Words 2011

  • Prosecutors, on the other hand, say their requests for secrecy are valid and prevent the defendant from bullying prosecutors into dropping their case for fear of disclosing sensitive information, a practice commonly referred to as "graymail."

    SFGate: Top News Stories By MATTHEW BARAKAT 2011

  • Roughly 18% of emails received were spam, comprising both actual spam and "graymail" i.e. unwanted newsletters, alerts, etc.

    Brett King: Too Much Content: A World of Exponential Information Growth Brett King 2011

  • Roughly 18% of emails received were spam, comprising both actual spam and "graymail" i.e. unwanted newsletters, alerts, etc.

    Brett King: Too Much Content: A World of Exponential Information Growth Brett King 2011

  • Roughly 18% of emails received were spam, comprising both actual spam and "graymail" i.e. unwanted newsletters, alerts, etc.

    Brett King: Too Much Content: A World of Exponential Information Growth Brett King 2011

  • KESSLER: There is a "graymail" statue that does permit evidence to be shown to a jury and a judge without making it public.

    CNN Transcript May 12, 2002 2002

  • The rules of evidence likely are what the government most desires to evade, once putatively having reached beyond Geneva articles, and contorted MCA's untested rendition of habeas in its various forms; [the instant case in re K. al-Marri being the test]; Padilla's suit has worked toward the realm of admissible evidence; the foregoing link is JB's discussion recently and a newspaper article; here is another pointer to a government exhibit in the matter of the government's worries that MKhan would receive permission to testify about the same things Padilla wants to discuss in open public record court; i.e., a kind of graymail argument by defense in those two cases; that exhibit appearing in the weblog there.

    Balkinization 2006

  • The rules of evidence likely are what the government most desires to evade, once putatively having reached beyond Geneva articles, and contorted MCA's untested rendition of habeas in its various forms; [the instant case in re K. al-Marri being the test]; Padilla's suit has worked toward the realm of admissible evidence; the foregoing link is JB's discussion recently and a newspaper article; here is another pointer to a government exhibit in the matter of the government's worries that MKhan would receive permission to testify about the same things Padilla wants to discuss in open public record court; i.e., a kind of graymail argument by defense in those two cases; that exhibit appearing in the weblog there.

    Balkinization 2006

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