Presumably DOJ doesn't flip coins to decide which cases to handle as there is considerable time, money and other resources involved in each case.

It would be interesting to know how much political and lobbying interests influence those prosecutions. I could not find anything of substance on this topic.

JSTOR can of course officially deny everything, but other publishers, along with MPAA would probably have a vested interest in turning him into an example.

Presumably, from what I had just read here, Aaron's political views wouldn't exactly been too popular with the US govt -- maybe this is just enough to put his case at the top of the stack.