Whistle blowers get punished, because someone was making big money off of where ever the whistle got blown, and those people who were making money also make large political contributions, so the politicians go after whistle blowers. I over simplified the explanation, but generally that is what is going on.

This story is horrifying but not surprising. This has been the treatment meted out to whistleblowers who believe in doing the right thing in the public interest since time immemorial. They are heroes and heroines, but are treated as criminals. I know there have been several high profile cases in the USA, but it happens everywhere. Here in the UK we have penalised NHS workers who have blown the whistle on unsafe practices in health trusts by dismissal and civil servants who leak or expose wrongdoing by their political masters suffer in the same way, or if they have signed the Official Secrets Act are prosecuted and jailed.

That is horrible!