A federal grand jury in Maryland indicted Drake on five counts of retaining classified information...

Cheney and his cabal destroyed were, by law, supposed to retain hundreds if not thousands of classified emails, that somehow went missing:

Waxman said he decided to release the summary after White House spokesman Tony Fratto said yesterday that there is "no evidence" that any White House e-mails from those years are missing. Fratto's assertion "seems to be an unsubstantiated statement that has no relation to the facts they have shared with us," Waxman said.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has now posted a series of studies to help us zero in on just what's missing. It will come as no surprise to most that the big offender is the man at the center of the most virulent scandals, and the missing email traffic relates just to those dates in which a federal prosecutor would have the most interest. Vice President Dick Cheney's office destroyed its emails, in violation of the requirements of the federal records act and potentially criminal law, for the following days....

Scott Horton

"As alleged, this defendant used a secret, non-government e-mail account to transmit classified and unclassified information that he was not authorized to possess or disclose. As if those allegations are not serious enough, he also allegedly later shredded documents and lied about his conduct to federal agents in order to obstruct their investigation," said Assistant Attorney General Lanny A. Breuer. "Our national security demands that the sort of conduct alleged here - violating the government's trust by illegally retaining and disclosing classified information - be prosecuted and prosecuted vigorously."

"The FBI takes very seriously allegations involving government employees who willfully retain or disclose classified information they are not authorized to possess. Working with prosecutors, we will continue to investigate and pursue charges against these individuals whose actions cannot be justified or tolerated," said Arthur M. Cummings II, FBI Executive Assistant Director, National Security Branch.

So, does anyone else read this:

we will continue to investigate and pursue charges against these individuals whose actions cannot be justified or tolerated

and marvel at the irony?  I guess we've decided there are individuals whose actions CAN be justified AND tolerated!  Good to have that confirmed.

Yes, I understand that laws are laws no matter who breaks them, but this seems to be one more  vigorous pursuit of justice that is limited to going after only those who expose the illegal acts of those higher up on the food chain.  

Guess it's also a big, fat message to anyone else who might think about blowing the whistle, huh?

You must follow the law as the judge explains it to you - not what you wish the law to be

That's not what jury nullification means at all. Jury nullification refers to the jurors declining to bring a verdict precisely because they disagree with the law and wish it to be another way. One example is a drug trial, where a jury that doesn't believe in the Great War on Drugs would refuse to convict despite overwhelming evidence that the defendant is guilty.

The famous "runaway grand jury" in the Rocky Flats trial was sort of a reverse jury nullification, but the same principle applied: The grand jury was told that the case was closed, and it insisted that it wanted indictments--the jurors wanted the DOJ to investigate the people who had committed environmental crimes in their state and not sweep them under the rug.

Mr. Drake loves his country. He's very disappointed that criminal charges were brought and we were not able to resolve this matter in another way," Wyda said. "This is a process and we now look forward to the next step in this process and litigating these matters in a public courtroom."

On the face of it, the difference would be that Scooter Libby was a miscreant hack who had "a political agenda and an ax to grind" (like discrediting Bush WMD critic Joe Wilson); while Alexander Drake may prove to be a "genuine whistle-blower, trying to shine light on a government wrong" (like Bush/Cheney's illegal wiretapping program).