[throwawayq3423]

> The federal government was found violating the constitution

This was of course not known at the time.

[esseph]

Sure, but it took multi court cases and years to prove that "legally".

[throwawayq3423]

How does that change or affect the point I'm making?

> This was of course not known at the time. The only thing that was known is that a single individual was responsible for the greatest breach of classified secrets in the nation's history, and that individual was still at large.