[tbpiper]

What is the difference between this crime and Martha Stewart's?

Actually, a better comparison might be Charles Colson, President Nixon's special counsel who went to prison for mishandling one FBI file.

[CyberCowboy777]

What are the details of that? I understood that he voluntarily agreed in 1974 to a plea of no contest to obstruction of justice in Watergate.

Was that based on the mishandling the one FBI file?

[chs68]

The penalties (at least insofar as they relate to Democrats) for mishandling official Government files and documents have become almost non-existant.

Does the name Ken Bacon ring a bell with anyone?

Perhaps if I mention Linda Tripp?

Linda Tripp, IIRC, had information from her Official Personnel File leaked to the press. That's a violation of the Privacy Act, and may also be a violation of other laws.

Ken Bacon, the Director of Public Affairs at the Pentagon during the reign of terror (aka the Clinton Administration) was identified as the person who leaked the information.

Nothing happened to him -- he maintained his job, and no criminal or civil action was ever taken against him, IIRC.