I don't disagree with this, but what I don't understand is the nationalist outrage.
Suppose a professor slacked off on their job by taking a long vacation in France. That would be wrong and deserving of punishment -- but it wouldn't have set off panic over him "selling out" the country. Yet that is what is happening.
It's also good to suspend judgement until the case works its way through the courts.
The Wen Ho Lee case is a point of reference here - he was accused of the worst kind of espionage and "convicted" after leaks in the NYT - but then the case dissolved and Lee got a big settlement.
I don't think it's "nationalist outrage". The outrage is over violating the rules, as many developers and scientists on HN have done work for the government, and followed the rules. I believe you are seeing a connection (given US government and US commenters) that simply isn't there. Correlation doesn't equal causation; that's a first rule of science.
They are all pretty low-value comments, but only one of them seems to be a nationalist criticism (or two if you count "paid millions to to assist a foreign government - which I think is political but barely nationalist).
As always, the actual issue is the failure to disclose the possible CoI -- as in the present case.
It sucks, BTW. Turns out the guy was the PhD advisor of my neighbor up the street.