The CIA Burglar Who Went Rogue
smithsonianmag.com
smithsonianmag.com
In the end, it was not surprising at all that the feds came down on him like a ton of bricks. It was surprising that he got a plea deal for a lesser sentence.
I'm guessing we can read it all about it in a book in a year or 2.
Seriously. Being a whistle-blower is one thing. Being a rogue canon playing fast and loose with national security so you can negotiate a better pension settlement is something else entirely.
The reason is that once this becomes official enough and "on the books" this kind of stuff would happen again. The real nightmare is not him doing it and getting way is every disgruntled agency employee doing it and then pointing fingers at this case saying "but you negotiated with him!".
So I think he wasn't smart enough, he could have had a chance at this had he not stirred the waters that much.
Another, general way of putting it, is that in large bureaucratic institutions (officially!) you never put your superiors in a position to make a new rule or break an existing rule.
Salary and severance negotiations are easier when you have the threat of prison or death on your side.
You can see the military mindset though. Once he identified the CIA as the enemy his mission was to use his abilities to crush them, to the point where he rejected a good deal in favour of fighting 'to the end'. Their only choice is to end it roughly, which is why it's almost always the default option.