In a variety of cases where there are minimum penalties from HIPAA to espionage, and there are different levels of clarity, e.g. in HIPAA unknowingly violating patient information and rights leads to a $100 penalty/year along with some type of suspension from the respective medical board if they so deem it necessary. This grows up to $25k a year along with jail time up to 10 years, and in some extreme cases up to $100k a year.
Espionage has increasing penalties all the way up to extreme positions such as treason.
When it pertains to government documents including public documents, CRM 1663, 1664, 1665 all can apply to this man's case. Each one can be a different change, and each one has a penalty of 5 years maximum.
This is literally the first case of this ever happening as well, an example not being made of the man is simply dumbfounding.
A friend of mine was run over and killed crossing the street and all the driver got was a stern talking to*. One might think you can practically get away with murder in America as long as you do it with a car.
* OK, maybe the driver's insurance rate also went up.
People on Hacker News really love to shill for the interests of millionaires and billionaires because they hope they'll be one some day and that they can do the same sorts of ridiculous shit as Peter Thiel.
