A partial win for civil liberties vs Preznit Kumbaya

Alleged National Security Agency leaker Thomas Drake will plead guilty to one misdemeanor count as part of a lenient deal with our "constitutional law scholar" President, George Barack Obama.

The Post notes that all other charges will be dropped in the deal and Drake will serve no jail time. He also will pay no fines, and can get assessed no more than one year of probation.

“It’s an unambiguous victory for Drake,” said Jesselyn Radack, director of national security at the Government Accountability Project, who supported Drake on whistleblower issues. “The prosecution’s case imploded.”

As another commenter in the story notes, George Barack didn't have many tools.
“As a tool for prosecuting leakers, the Espionage Act is a broad sword where a scalpel would be far preferable,” said Stephen Vladeck, a constitutional law professor at American University. “It criminalizes to the same degree the wrongful retention of information that probably should never have been classified in the first place and the willful sale of state secrets to foreign intelligence agencies.”
Prediction? A bipartisan coalition of "serious adults" crafts a new law, or an addendum to the Patriot Act, that targets leakers in exactly that way. They will still be potentially criminalized as felons, but at a lower felony level.

Showing how weak the case was, Drake rejected two earlier plea offers from the constitutional law administration. The big deal was that the plea agreement removed references to classified information.

Prediction No. 2? The administration will NOT address cost overruns and other issues mentioned by Drake in the first place.