"I would have preferred that he spent his time prosecuting big-money financial criminals rather than going after the news media," Bergman said.
In agreeing to the deal, the Justice Department essentially acknowledged that it would have had a hard time prosecuting Mr. Marri to the full extent of the law.
Even if the NBI's theory that he launched the virus into cyberspace to avenge his failure to graduate from the computer school is correct, it will have a hard time prosecuting its case.Extradition is not a promising alternative.
"For all practical purposes, after 1986, it became somewhere between difficult and impossible to prosecute dealers for selling guns without keeping a record, because U.S. attorneys don't want to waste their time prosecuting misdemeanors," said William Vizzard, a retired A.T.F.
Senator John McCain of Arizona, Mr. Obama's opponent in 2008, told reporters on Tuesday that administration officials were "intentionally leaking information to enhance President Obama's image as a tough guy for the elections" — while at the same time prosecuting low-level officials for disclosures.
Some districts may also not have the capacity to spend more time prosecuting immigrants.
Because Ashley Madison is headquartered in Canada, the U.S. government would have a difficult time prosecuting that particular company, but there are plenty of other sites that offer the same service.
"Rather than spend time prosecuting serious crimes including gun and drug trafficking and organized crime, federal lawyers now spend much of their time on misdemeanor illegal entry cases," Astrid Dominguez, a border rights fellow with the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas and the Rio Grande Valley Equal Voice Network said, according to the Brownsville Herald.
"Any time we prosecuted anyone with any stroke, it would come up".
McGill, who was nearly 80 at the time, was prosecuted under the 1857 obscenity act.
