I wonder what they must be trying to hide then, because this looks pretty bad itself. I wonder if the same person may be behind both unreasonably disproportionate reactions...

I had the same disturbing thought. What if it was some muckety-muck at MIT leaning on the prosecutor's office the whole time in order to teach those meddling kids a lesson. Now that would be mucho-embarrassing if it came to light.

There are (at least) two ways to look at it:

1) They have no idea how it will be perceived from the "outside looking in."

2) They do know it will look bad, but they believe that it is worth it to protect the reputations of whomever might be revealed to have participated in the persecution.