This is one side of the story. I'm not going to form an opinion, and then criticize the US government, weev, or AT&T, without seeing the other side.
Also the quoted article does not appear to show considerable insight on internet security.
Sheer directory traversal should never be considered a criminal act.
Of course if they had followed through with the stock manipulation, this would warrant criminal punishment.
Although of course stock manipulation is only punishable if you're not a bank or hedgefund which is sad.
Later in the chat, another user says that weev should post the leaked data to a public mailing list, and weev says no because that could potentially be criminal.