“So is getting a pass on actually leaking the information, and the only charges that he lied? Why?”
Now, I Do Not know if it is happening in this particular case, but I can tell you generally why such lower charges are made to hold an individual and get them into the system. They charge first with what they have an iron-clad case for, more complex charges are held back to negotiate with the perp. To roll him up...get his testimony against further characters in a larger conspiracy. You hold out a carrot and a stick. A carrot is the possibility of a plea deal on this lesser charges that will lighten his sentence, in return for good testimony on others involved in the conspiracy. The stick is the subsequent, much heavier espionage charges that can be put together as the investigation continues.
Now I don’t know what is actually happening, none of us commenting here do, but that is what normally happens in cases of wider conspiracy, which, again only in my opinion, this obviously is.
Good analysis Scott from the West Coast. It makes sense to me.
Will any of the four reporters mentioned in the indictment be prosecuted? That may hang on what the leaker will expose. If they received classified information and knew it was classified, I am sure that would be a crime. Proving their knowledge may be difficult without a transmitted classified document or acknowledgement from them in a text that they knew it was classified.
I hardly ever watch television anymore and get my news from the web. I watched a couple hours of FOX today and I was surprised they were mainly bashing law enforcement for seizing her phone and email traffic to prove some of their case. If she was receiving classified briefings from a government employee she should find herself unemployable in my mind, but that certainly wasn't the consensus. The MSM will likely call her a hero (if they ever get around to mentioning her name) since she was working for Huff Post, Politico, Buzzfeed and currently at the New York Lies. She was clearly critical of the Trump Administration and a devoted gun grabber which is enough to make her the darling of the libtard media.