Well, it looked like the powers-that-be wanted to make an example out of him. So I could see it be surprising that he got a slap on the wrist after having those "guns" pointed at him.
I read that line to mean they were shocked that he received as much punishment as he did. The phrase just before that talks about damaging the prosecution's case.
It's been painfully obvious for more than a decade that there exists a certain class of people in the US who are above the law, e.g. James Clapper.