Joshua Rozenberg thinks Christopher Galley’s press conferences means charges against him or Damian Green are unlikely – I hope he’s proved right. It’s quite correct of course that CPS lawyers would need to conclude a prosecution was in the public interest, but I’m not quite as confident as he is that the CPS machine won’t accept that “encouraging other” civil servants is public interest enough. I agree, though, that they’d be wise not to. I think they ought not to, either.
In my rather lengthy comment to your previous thread “Justifying misconduct in public office” I suggested that this whole thing might eventually be dropped as “not in the public interest.” Of course, one cannot be sure that the “powers that be” will actually drop it. Assuming that they take this to trial – (which would not be taking place until mid-2009 at the earliest) – then there will be (a) extensive legal argument relating to the definition of key elements of the offence with no guarantee that any rulings will favour the prosecution and (b) any jury is likely to exercise their absolute right to throw the case out (a la Ponting). That’s where, yet again, the jury system may prove to be the lamp which shows the freedom lives. How bloody inconvenient for this government those juries are!!