HMM: Former F.B.I. Agent Pleads Guilty in Leak to A.P.

Federal investigators said they were able to identify the man, Donald Sachtleben, a former bomb technician, as a suspect in the leak case only after secretly obtaining A.P. reporters’ phone logs, a move that set off an uproar among journalists and members of Congress of both parties when it was disclosed in May.

Mr. Sachtleben, 55, of Carmel, Ind., who was an F.B.I. agent from 1983 until 2008 and was later hired as a contractor, has agreed to serve 43 months in prison for the leak, the Justice Department said. His case is the eighth leak-related prosecution under the Obama administration. Only three such cases were prosecuted under all previous presidents.

Call me cynical, but I think these prosecutions are less about national security, and more about keeping people from talking about the many looming Obama scandals. Particularly with the phone-records angle here. The Obama Administration is acting like it has something to hide — and, no doubt, it does. Meanwhile, is the kiddie porn thing trumped up as punishment? Or is a guy with a Top Secret clearance really involved in kiddie porn? Either way, it doesn’t make the national security apparatus look very good.