That doesn't rule out civil action from the Killians or Gen. Staudt for defamation or slander. CBS would be forced to give up its source and could not hide behind "confidential sources" without incurring contempt of court, since the docs are phonies.
Now that I think about it, this could be exactly why CBS is not referring to the docs as phony, only unverifiable.
First, defamnation is not criminal, no felony, etc.
I hadn't thought about the Staudt angle. Maybe his reputation has been tarnished by this.
Killian is a non-starter on a civil case, it is impossible to defame a dead person. And, as far as I know, the law has not extended defamtion to kin of the defamed person.
President Bush's reputation is the one most harmed by this. The worst damage he could suffer would be loss of the election due to the defamation. A suit might cost him the election ... politics complicates the calculus quite a bit. But GWB does have a good defamation case, IMO.