Reply #64: No, Journalists professionally encourage their sources to give them

[EFerrari]

information. That's not a crime. Facilitating the delivery of information is not in all cases a crime, either. Journalists do this every day. Glenn is right about that. If you're really interested in this, watch Conyers' hearing from yesterday. Some good panelists talk about this issue in a very granular way.

Even if Holder gets Manning to turn, he's still going to have to deal with 1) Manning being in solitary confinement and the effect on him, who refused to speak voluntarily before his solitary confinement and 2) the evidence against Manning provided by a Lamo, who is not a great witness and 3) journalistic privilege.

This is a disaster in the making for the Obama administration and they shouldn't go there. Aside from the ethics or morality of it, they only stand to lose politically.