Article Image

IPFS News Link • Criminal Justice System

FBI Chooses Secrecy Over Locking Up Criminals

• theintercept.com

In the most recent example, the FBI may be forced to drop its case against a Washington State school administrator charged with possessing child porn because it doesn't want to tell the court or the defense how it got its evidence – even in the judge's chambers.

The FBI reportedly used a bug in an older version of the free anonymity software Tor to insert malware on the computers of people who accessed a child-porn website it had seized. The malware gave agents the ability to see visitors' real internet addresses and track them down.

Defense lawyers for Jay Michaud of Vancouver, Wash., argued they had the right to review the malware in order to pursue their argument that the government compromised the security of Michaud's computer, leading to the illicit material ending up there unintentionally.

U.S. District Court Judge Robert Bryan in Tacoma agreed.

"The consequences are straightforward: the prosecution must now choose between complying with the court's discovery order and dismissing the case," Michaud's defense attorneys wrote in a brief filed last week.


thelibertyadvisor.com/declare