The Cable:

The State Department investigator who accused colleagues last week of using drugs, soliciting prostitutes, and having sex with minors says that Foggy Bottom is now engaged in an “intimidation” campaign to stop her. . . . . After the CBS News made inquiries to the State Department about the charges, Schulman says investigators from the State Department’s Inspector General promptly arrived at Fedenisn’s door. “They talked to both kids and never identified themselves,” he said. “First the older brother and then younger daughter, a minor, asking for their mom’s place of work and cell phone number … They camped out for four to five hours.” Schulman says the purpose of the visit was to get Fedenisn to sign a document admitting that she stole State Department materials, such as the memos leaked to CBS. Schulman says it was crucial that she didn’t sign the document because her separation agreement with the State Department includes a provision allowing disclosures of misconduct. Furthermore, none of the materials were classified. Schulman charged that sending law enforcement officers to pressure her into signing an agreement was heavy handed. “Why not simply mail it, courier it, send it Federal Express or deliver it by any other normal means by which one delivers a demand letter? Why send two federal law enforcement agents?” he asked. He also said that officials from the Inpsector General’s Office told him they’d be having a “no kidding get together with the DOJ,” implying to him that they would push criminal charges if his client didn’t cooperate.

Meanwhile, there appear to be no criminal consequences on the horizon for Eric Holder, who lied under oath when he said he never even heard of potential prosecution of a report after signing off on a warrant premised on potential prosecution of a reporter.

And there appear to be no criminal consequences on the horizon for James Clapper, who flat-out lied to Ron Wyden by answering this question:

Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?

by saying: “No, sir. There are cases where they could inadvertently, perhaps, collect, but not wittingly.” We have now learned that the NSA “wittingly” collects all kinds of data on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans. Wyden knew it, Clapper knew it, Clapper knew Wyden was going to ask the question, and Clapper declined an invitation to revise his answer afterwards.

But Holder and Clapper are a) high-level guys who b) play ball.

So they are giving a pass for blatant lies to Congress, while a woman who followed the law and tried to tell the truth is threatened with prosecution.

Hope and change, baby. Hope and change.

P.S. Even if there are no consequences for Holder or Clapper, lies have consequences for the rest of us. It turns out we have Clapper to thank, in no small measure, for Edward Snowden’s revelations. In a recent chat at the Guardian, Snowden said that among the factors that caused him to reveal the existence of the program was . . . Clapper’s blatant lie:

I imagine everyone’s experience is different, but for me, there was no single moment. It was seeing a continuing litany of lies from senior officials to Congress – and therefore the American people – and the realization that that Congress, specifically the Gang of Eight, wholly supported the lies that compelled me to act. Seeing someone in the position of James Clapper – the Director of National Intelligence – baldly lying to the public without repercussion is the evidence of a subverted democracy. The consent of the governed is not consent if it is not informed.

Heckuva job, Barry.