In US courts intent matters. If you can be shown to have intended the scandal to manipulate the stock, the courts consider that. To know whom and what to investigate, you had to talk to someone in the know. Almost always, someone inside. For a journalist, this is fine. But to accomplish this, you had to talk about it. Along with intent, especially if you've it done more than once, this suggests conspiracy and even RICO. Which an aggressive prosecutor will use to threaten one of you to convict the rest.

I forget how much HN wants the law to work like code. It does not. Intent matters. Circumstances matter. Context matters. Of course, money does, too.