According to CNN's Evan Perez and Shimon Prokupecz, federal charges have been recommended against at least one Cardinals employee as a result of the alleged intrusion into the Astros' proprietary database. It is unclear who that employee is at that time.
Here's more from Perez and Prokupecz:
The probe by investigators at the FBI's Houston office is complete, according to officials briefed on the matter, but is awaiting action by the Houston U.S. attorney's office. A U.S. attorney spokeswoman didn't respond to a request for comment.
A spokeswoman for the Houston U.S. attorney's office said "no charges have been filed and we obviously cannot provide any information that is not contained in our public court record nor confirm or deny the existence or non-existence of an investigation."
The Cardinals fired scouting director Chris Correa earlier this week after he reportedly admitted to hacking into Houston's computer system. Right now it is unclear if any other Cardinals employees were involved.
Hacking, which in this case is defined as accessing without authorization, is covered by the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), and yes, one baseball team hacking into another team's system is a crime. It's corporate espionage. That federal charges are even being discussed shows the seriousness of the matter.
