I wonder what their reaction will be to Donald's very similar crimes with secret documents and obstruction. This was a kid, given way more responsibility than an enlisted person should have, unless they are very senior rank. This should have been officer material and a national guardsman with that kind of access is just plain wrong. I think the military needs to step up to the plate, they abused this young person by exposing him to danger and responsibilities he was not prepared for, he didn't have the experience, rank or proper training, he was handling material that only senior officers with high level security clearances have access to.
If I were the kid's lawyer I would present these as mitigating factors at sentencing, he was thrust into a situation without proper vetting or experience. He should do time, but when someone senior or an officer does it, it would be more serious and an officer should have been doing this work, not an emotionally immature kid at the bottom of the heap. I think there is blame to go around on this one, and part of that blame rests with his commanding officer and a piss poor system of security. They just shut his entire unit down, that tells me there are command issues and deep problems.
Should the kid do time? Absolutely, but how much time? I think these things can be mitigating factors that will affect his sentence. There will be no repeats that much is for sure. However, there is a former navy CPO that got access to the documents, and she spread them around including altered versions, she runs a pro-Russian website. She is also an enemy of Ukraine and recently retired from the Navy or was fired and that is how the Russians got the docs. She obtained and distributed classified materials and could be in more shit than the kid, who only wanted to impress his friends, like Trump. He also kept them in about as secure place as Trump too, Donald's were behind locked doors, and the kid's were on a password protected server.
Even her own fellow diehard conservatives won't follow the Georgia Republican in defense of the Air National Guardsman accused of leaking classified material.
www.politico.com
GOP puts MTG ‘on an island’ over Pentagon leaker case
Even her own fellow diehard conservatives won’t follow the Georgia Republican in defense of the Air National Guardsman accused of leaking classified material.