Department Of Justice Uses Grand Jury Subpoena To Identify Anonymous Commenters on a Silk Road Post at Reason.com

source: Popehat

The United States Department of Justice is using federal grand jury subpoenas to identify anonymous commenters engaged in typical internet bluster and hyperbole in connection with the Silk Road prosecution. DOJ is targeting Reason.com, a leading libertarian website whose clever writing is eclipsed only by the blowhard stupidity of its commenting peanut gallery.

Why are the government using its vast power to identify these obnoxious asshats, and not the other tens of thousands who plague the internet?

Because these twerps mouthed off about a judge.

Last week, a source provided me with a federal grand jury subpoena. The subpoena1, issued by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York, is directed to Reason.com in Washington, D.C.. The subpoena commands Reason to provide the grand jury "any and all identifying information"2 Reason has about participants in what the subpoena calls a "chat."

The "chat" in question is a comment thread on Nick Gillespie's May 31, 2015 article about Ross "Dread Pirate Roberts" Ulbricht's plea for leniency to the judge who would sentence him in the Silk Road prosecution. That plea, we know now, failed, as Ulbricht received a life sentence, with no possibility of parole.

Several commenters on the post found the sentence unjust, and vented their feelings in a rough manner. The grand jury subpoena specifies their comments and demands that Reason.com produce any identifying information on them:

Examples of comments:

AgammamonI5.31.15 @ lO:47AM Its judges like these that should be taken out back and shot.

AlanI5.31.15 @ 12:09PM It's judges like these that will be taken out back and shot. FTFY.

croakerI6.1.15 @ 11:06AM Why waste ammunition? Wood chippers get the message across clearly. Especially if you feed them in feet first.

Cloudbusterl6.l.15 @ 2:40PM Why do it out back? Shoot them out front, on the steps of the courthouse.

Rhywunl5.3l.15 @ 11:35AM I hope there is a special place in hell reserved for that horrible woman.

AlanI5.31.15 @ 12:11PM There is.

Product PlacementI5.31.15 @ 1:22PM I'd prefer a hellish place on Earth be reserved for her as well.

croakerl6.l.15 @ 11:09AM Fuck that. I don't want to oay for that cunt's food, housing, and medical. Send her through the wood chipper.

Subpoena linked in the article.

Read the full article at Popehat


Comments


[11 Points] Insipid_Pedantry:

US stopped being free after 9-11. Time to wake up, folks. Your freedom is a dead dream.


[9 Points] Theeconomist1:

People need to watch the death threats. This isn't the first time comments were subpoenaed bc a comment threatened someone - esp a federal judge.


[9 Points] None:

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[4 Points] Drugaddicatedanimal:

Aren't we entitled to free speech. I think it's something like the first amendment, or the bill or rights. If I said "Judge forest can eat a bag of dicks" will I be subpoenaed? At this point in time I'm hypothetically saying "judge forest can eat a bag of dicks".


[4 Points] pileofdeadfeds:

Im going to fuck judge Katherine B. Forrest in the ass with a Vietnam era machete.

I know where she lives too cause her dox is already out. Its going to be like U.S. District Judge Joan H. Lefkow all over again, with a little more gore and suffering.

I definitely linked all my real information to this account and i posted from an IP address that is linkable to me. Come and get me you fucking retarded federal agents, before i feed judge forest my cock.

I seriously hope the feds spend lots of money to investigate me and they are able to stop me, as a lone wolf terrorist, before i do irreparable harm to their precious little judge.

Hit me with a subpoena and you will go far in your law enforcement career!


[1 Points] ShulginsCat:

Animals.


[1 Points] None:

That stuff is mild compared to some stuff about her and Ross. Asshats running amuck.


[1 Points] None:

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[1 Points] vitaminKsGood4u:

Yeah, this is common sense. Death threats against a federal judge is asking for it.

And to the people in here saying "{death threat}, And they can waste all there money trying to find me... I use opsec so I am safe...". You are an asshole. You are not waisting THEIR money, you are waisting yours and all of our money, because it is taxes that pay for it. All you are doing is waisting your own fucking money!!

At the same time you are giving them a target to point at and justify that budget because giving death threats against federal employees is illegal and not protected free speech. We are supposed to be the good guys who want the government to hear us about how we are not bad people, but you fuck it up for all of us. I am sure you think you are the internet tough guy fighting for our rights, but using death threats is the wrong way and you are only hurting the cause.

People who are curious come in here and see we have people OK with murder so we can get drugs, and people issuing death threats to judges and we look like we are out of our damn minds.

The majority of us are good people who say drugs are not bad and drug users are not crazy people, but then you come in here and were back to square one again. Please quit giving them an asshole to point to and say "Thats why we need the war on drugs".


[-1 Points] su882jkak:

Idiots. Low hanging fruit.


[-4 Points] AlfredMurrah:

Katherine Bedford Forrest is a power-abusing cunt. That said, it's shit like this that is why I am glad that Timothy McVeigh did what he did in Oklahoma City, USA in 1995. We recently commemorated the 20th anniversary of this event. Although I could not disagree with him more on some things, he is a personal hero of mine.

I witnessed the crocodile tears of all of the people "mourning", as if they had some personal connection to it. You have to consider that a lot of the people who died or were injured in that building were not innocent. Some of them were federal pigs who inevitably ruined quite a few lives, and may have been accountable for one or more acts of murder. But I had to learn this side of this story for myself, since the dumb teachers would have silenced me if I had the audacity to question anything.

But before "oh my god he killed kids and innocent people!!!!111": Tim McVeigh wasn't just some cold-blooded killer who wantonly killed people for the sake of killing them. Federal tyrants are who Timothy McVeigh targeted, not the kids. He described the kids as unfortunate collateral damage. And we know the USA has 55 gallon drums of blood on its hands from "collateral damage" as a result of what happened in Iraq.

The event was a crucial act of urban renewal for the city. Down went an ugly high-rise federal office building full of pigs. Then up went both a modern monument that is the city's most visited tourist attraction, and a more humble office building for the feds.


[-2 Points] fuckwhiteyross10:

LOL, these dorks all made making death threads because their Dork God rightfully got sent to prison. These guys wouldn't even be as mad if Ross was black or mexican.

yah bro lets threaten a judge because she doesnt like guys who put out hits on people. Idiots.