The most interesting part of this to me is that for the charge to stick, they have to prove he did what he did with malicious intent.Keeping in mind the article

The most interesting part of this to me is that for the charge to stick, they have to prove he did what he did with malicious intent.Keeping in mind the article states that other employees of this business also viewed these classified documents and are facing no repercussions because the company states they did it on accident. While in every scenario this kid should get off completely, that very well may not be the case. The US is extremely stringent when it comes to cyber crime, more often than not they like to make an example out of people rather than show mercy. The technical writeup for this was spot on, it seems like the company is embarrassed and instead of admitting they severely screwed up, they are doubling down on trying portray this teen as some super high tech malicious hacker who was trying to steal government secrets. It doesn't matter how lax your security is, if you can convince the population that this teen was nothing but an unethical, scumbag hacker, no one will show him sympathy.