If that were the case, there would need to be at least two other parties who share his ideology specifically enough to decrypt the data only after he's presumed dead. They would also need to remain secret in order to not be targeted simultaneously.
Not impossible requirements, but they seem unlikely.
The question is: Can you automate it to remove the human element?
Assuming Tor is perfect, could you create N co-conspirator hidden services that need checked in with periodically to not work together to decrypt it? Assuming the check in would be able to detect duress, that might be a viable system.
If that were the case, there would need to be at least two other parties who share his ideology specifically enough to decrypt the data only after he's presumed dead.
Well apparently Senator Humphrey is on board with his ideology :)
I really don't think it'd be a problem for him to distribute keys to a few like-minded individuals before he left, or even when he was in hong kong, particularly if he has some shared key system set up so that any n keys can open the secrets. It sounds like he has certainly distributed an encrypted file of the docs to several people, so I wouldn't be surprised if he has likewise distributed the keys to open them.
However while the mechanics of his protecting this data are interesting on a technical level, they're also not the most important story here, and we don't really know enough (or at least I don't) to speculate without more facts...
Not impossible requirements, but they seem unlikely.
The question is: Can you automate it to remove the human element?
Assuming Tor is perfect, could you create N co-conspirator hidden services that need checked in with periodically to not work together to decrypt it? Assuming the check in would be able to detect duress, that might be a viable system.