Although judges are not required to follow the USSG, and upward departures do happen; e.g. Dennis Hastert's structuring conviction. The DOJ is technically correct, but very misleading.

(I know you know this and that an upward departure from the Guidelines is very unlikely for this particular case--just stating for the record.)

Are you sure? The judge departed upwards from the prosecutor's recommended sentence, but did he exceed the guidelines? The class of charges Hastert was sentenced under include a sharp increase in offense level if the crime involves sexual exploitation of minors, easily enough to land you in zone D for a first offense.

From the transcript [1]:

"The government is recommending a guidelines sentence, meaning between zero and six months in jail... It's not sufficient to comply with the purposes of sentencing. It doesn't reflect the seriousness of the crime and the conduct surrounding it. It doesn't provide just punishment for the offense to give simply a guidelines sentence."

[1]: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/ct-pdf-transc...

The base offense level for structuring in the service of some other criminal act appears to be 8, and offenses connected with sexual exploitation of minors gain 6 offense levels; zone D starts at level 12 for first-time offenders.

It is as least as likely that I am wrong than that the reporting is wrong, but, there you go.

That's good to know. Basically concurrent with a slightly different technical approach.