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aGameOfThrones
06-07-2015, 02:24 AM
Khairullozhon Matanov is a 24-year-old former cab driver from Quincy, Massachusetts. The night of the Boston Marathon bombings, he ate dinner with Tamerlan and Dhzokhar Tsarnaev at a kebob restaurant in Somerville. Four days later Matanov saw photographs of his friends listed as suspects in the bombings on the CNN and FBI websites. Later that day he went to the local police. He told them that he knew the Tsarnaev brothers and that they’d had dinner together that week, but he lied about whose idea it was to have dinner, lied about when exactly he had looked at the Tsarnaevs’ photos on the Internet, lied about whether Tamerlan lived with his wife and daughter, and lied about when he and Tamerlan had last prayed together. Matanov likely lied to distance himself from the brothers or to cover up his own jihadist sympathies—or maybe he was just confused.

Then Matanov went home and cleared his Internet browser history.

Matanov continued to live in Quincy for over a year after the bombings. During this time the FBI tracked him with a drone-like surveillance plane that made loops around Quincy, disturbing residents. The feds finally arrested and indicted him in May 2014. They never alleged that Matanov was involved in the bombings or that he knew about them beforehand, but they charged him with four counts of obstruction of justice. There were three counts for making false statements based on the aforementioned lies and—remarkably—one count for destroying “any record, document or tangible object” with intent to obstruct a federal investigation. This last charge was for deleting videos on his computer that may have demonstrated his own terrorist sympathies and for clearing his browser history.

Matanov faced the possibility of decades in prison—twenty years for the records-destruction charge alone.

Federal prosecutors charged Matanov for destroying records under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, a law enacted by Congress in the wake of the Enron scandal. The law was, in part, intended to prohibit corporations under federal investigation from shredding incriminating documents. But since Sarbanes-Oxley was passed in 2002 federal prosecutors have applied the law to a wider range of activities. A police officer in Colorado who falsified a report to cover up a brutality case was convicted under the act, as was a woman in Illinois who destroyed her boyfriend’s child pornography.

Prosecutors are able to apply the law broadly because they do not have to show that the person deleting evidence knew there was an investigation underway. In other words, a person could theoretically be charged under Sarbanes-Oxley for deleting her dealer’s number from her phone even if she were unaware that the feds were getting a search warrant to find her marijuana. The application of the law to digital data has been particularly far-reaching because this type of information is so easy to delete. Deleting digital data can inadvertently occur in normal computer use, and often does.

In 2010 David Kernell, a University of Tennessee student, was convicted under Sarbanes-Oxley after he deleted digital records that showed he had obtained access to Sarah Palin’s Yahoo e-mail account. Using publicly available information, Kernell answered security questions that allowed him to reset Palin’s Yahoo password to “popcorn.” He downloaded information from Palin’s account, including photographs, and posted the new password online. He then deleted digital information that may have made it easier for federal investigators to find him. Like Matanov, he cleared the cache on his Internet browser. He also uninstalled Firefox, ran a disk defragmentation program to reorganize and clean up his hard drive, and deleted a series of images that he had downloaded from the account. For entering Palin’s e-mail, he was eventually convicted of misdemeanor unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer and felony destruction of records under Sarbanes-Oxley. In January 2012, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit found that Kernell’s awareness of a potential investigation into his conduct was enough to uphold the felony charge.


http://www.thenation.com/article/208593/you-can-be-prosecuted-clearing-your-browser-history#

CPUd
06-07-2015, 03:56 AM
I doubt a jury would be able to convict him on the SOx charge unless they also convict on one of the obstruction charges.

muh_roads
06-07-2015, 08:54 AM
Whenever people file freedom of info acts and all they really receive are lines blacked out with markers, can that be considered obstruction of justice? The whole 9/11 commission report seems like obstruction of justice by changing and leaving out testimony entirely.

We see gov't claiming obstruction of justice all the time. The people need to start turning it around on them.

The court system was supposed to put David & Goliath on an equal level playing field. Need to return it to a system where the fattest wallet doesn't matter.

paleocon1
06-07-2015, 09:30 AM
Sooooooo, HRC should go to jail for life for thousands of counts regarding data destruction.

Ronin Truth
06-07-2015, 11:22 AM
I just now cleared it (again), come and get me. I could really use some free medical care, room and board for awhile.

euphemia
06-07-2015, 12:09 PM
Here's where I come down on this. How many people died because of what Mantanov did? None. How many of the murderers and co-conspirators were not arrested because of Mantanov did? None. He did not obstruct justice. Justice has been served. If anything, Mantanov helped police. He just did not provide extra copies of evidence the police already had.

DamianTV
06-07-2015, 12:15 PM
Everyone has a Skeleton in their closet. When the 'Just-Us' system criminalizes people for trying to hide those Skeletons in ANY closet, and simultaneously demands authority to hide infinite Skellies in THEIR closet, you have not only Injustice, but Tyranny.

Without Privacy, every subjective interpretation of every action every man makes becomes subject to the approval of Tyrants.

satchelmcqueen
06-07-2015, 12:40 PM
maybe someone should let hillary read this.

Uriel999
06-07-2015, 01:22 PM
Wow, no good deed goes unpunished. I love it when people try to help the police and then get fucked by them. He probably cleared his history because he looked at porn and didn't use private mode.

Henry Rogue
06-07-2015, 01:54 PM
Never talk to LE. It's that simple.

moostraks
06-07-2015, 02:33 PM
Everyone has a Skeleton in their closet. When the 'Just-Us' system criminalizes people for trying to hide those Skeletons in ANY closet, and simultaneously demands authority to hide infinite Skellies in THEIR closet, you have not only Injustice, but Tyranny.

Without Privacy, every subjective interpretation of every action every man makes becomes subject to the approval of Tyrants.

Your last sentence reminds me of those who support the invasive visits by "children" services and argue that to not be willing to allow the authorities in is an admission of guilt. No, it is prudent to realize that everything parents do is going to be subject to the approval of the tyrants' subjective interpretation...

Anti Federalist
06-07-2015, 06:55 PM
He told them that he knew the Tsarnaev brothers and that they’d had dinner together that week, but he lied about whose idea it was to have dinner, lied about when exactly he had looked at the Tsarnaevs’ photos on the Internet, lied about whether Tamerlan lived with his wife and daughter, and lied about when he and Tamerlan had last prayed together. Matanov likely lied to distance himself from the brothers or to cover up his own jihadist sympathies—or maybe he was just confused.

Do. Not. Talk. To. Cops.

For fuck's sake...


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc

Anti Federalist
06-07-2015, 06:57 PM
Everyone has a Skeleton in their closet. When the 'Just-Us' system criminalizes people for trying to hide those Skeletons in ANY closet, and simultaneously demands authority to hide infinite Skellies in THEIR closet, you have not only Injustice, but Tyranny.

Without Privacy, every subjective interpretation of every action every man makes becomes subject to the approval of Tyrants.

Three Felonies a Day.

DamianTV
06-08-2015, 02:48 AM
Three Felonies a Day.

Without privacy, that will very quickly turn into 300 felonies per day. All victimless crimes to boot.