The Justice Department quietly abandoned its felony prosecution of former FBI agent Denise Woo, who had been accused of helping espionage suspect Jeffrey Wang. Wang has never been charged, but Woo -- who believed Wang to be innocent -- was accused of "disclosing the existence of a national security wiretap on Wang's home telephone, revealing to Wang the identity of the FBI's confidential informant and lying to FBI agents."

Those charges, carrying a ten year mandatory minimum, were dismissed when Woo agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of revealing confidential information. She was fined $1,000 and placed on probation -- quite a light sentence for an agent who (according to the government) was assisting a spy.

Woo's attorney, Carolyn Kubota, explains why Woo was prosecuted in the first place: "Denise was made a scapegoat for the government's absolutely bungled investigation of Mr. Wang." Wang suggests that the FBI retaliated against Woo for arguing that the investigation of Wang was unwarranted.