DOJ Drops Child Porn Case To Protect FBI Hack Tools

[TheCount]

Rather than share the now-classified technological means that investigators used to locate a child porn suspect, federal prosecutors in Washington state have dropped all charges against a man accused of accessing Playpen, a notorious and now-shuttered website.

The case, United States v. Jay Michaud, is one of nearly 200 cases nationwide that have raised new questions about the appropriate limitations on the government’s ability to hack criminal suspects. Michaud marks just the second time that prosecutors have asked that case be dismissed.

"The government must now choose between disclosure of classified information and dismissal of its indictment," Annette Hayes, a federal prosecutor, wrote in a court filing on Friday. "Disclosure is not currently an option. Dismissal without prejudice leaves open the possibility that the government could bring new charges should there come a time within the statute of limitations when and the government be in a position to provide the requested discovery."

The Department of Justice is currently prosecuting over 135 people nationwide whom they believe accessed the illegal website. However, in order to find those people, federal authorities seized and operated the site for 13 days before closing it down. During that period, the FBI deployed a Tor exploit that allowed them to find out those users’ real IP addresses. The use of Tor, which obscures and anonymizes IP addresses and browser user agents, makes it significantly more difficult for individuals to be tracked online. With the exploit, it became extremely easy for suspects to be identified and located.

The DOJ has called this exploit a "network investigative technique," (NIT) while many security experts have dubbed it as "malware."

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/03/doj-drops-case-against-child-porn-suspect-rather-than-disclose-fbi-hack/

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

Eh, an anomalous story of big shot cops playing James Bond. It masks the real misdeeds of the FBI. It's not like TV. Most people get caught because somebody told on them, especially on the internet (e.g., Facebook). I've read historians who say that 90% of people arrested by the Gestapo were because a neighbor, friend, family member, or somebody else ratted them. Here's the modern day version:




From the FBI website:

"However, use of informants to assist in the investigation of criminal activity may involve an element of deception, intrusion into the privacy of individuals, or cooperation with persons whose reliability and motivation may be open to question."

https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/faqs





Article title: Federal agencies' payments to confidential informants increase
February 5, 2015

Federal programs that pay people to tell on others awarded around half a billion dollars during 2014.

The bulk of the disclosed awards went to whistleblowers. Their more shadowy cousins, confidential informants, got tens of millions, including *$28.8 million in payments from a single*Department of Justice fund, according to a report sent to Congress on Jan. 29.

The informant payments came out of the Asset Forfeiture Program*, which last year received $4.47 billion through the seizure of proceeds or tools of crimes.


More here:
http://www.post-gazette.com/news/nation/2015/02/05/Federal-agencies-payments-to-confidential-informants-increase/stories/201502050147






*Asset forfeiture is big business. Just ask the many law-abiding who have been abused by "law" enforcement.

http://www.endforfeiture.com A website exposing the police abuse of asset forfeiture, .

http://ij.org/report/policing-for-profit/ .

[angelatc]

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/FBI-Special-ed-teacher-caught-with-infant-rape-6384373.php

Infant rape is his thing. Oh, and he's a school employee.


Having identified Michaud as the user in late June, investigators then learned he was Vancouver School District employee, the agent continued. As it turned out, Michaud had worked for the district for two decades.

Investigators searched Michaud’s home Friday, seizing electronics they claim contained images depicting child rape. According to charging papers, several images showed infants being raped.

Due to be placed on administrative leave immediately, Michaud has been working for the district for more than 20 years.

Michaud previously worked as an assistant at several schools before obtaining his teaching certificate in 2002 and going to work at Gaiser Middle School, where he'd worked since. For the past 2 ½ years, he has been on special assignment to the district's central office coaching other teachers in the district.

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/FBI-Special-ed-teacher-caught-with-infant-rape-6384373.php

[spudea]

article says it's classified, then describes exactly how it worked.

[TheCount]

http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/FBI-Special-ed-teacher-caught-with-infant-rape-6384373.php

Infant rape is his thing. Oh, and he's a school employee.From other stories, my understanding is that this 'playpen' site required people to post new, original child porn that they had themselves made in order to join.

[kpitcher]

I know nothing of this case however maybe the cops actually have nothing and are using this to save face?

A number of years ago police accused a work associate of accessing child porn. Swooped in, grabbed every computer in the house and claimed his personal one had child porn on it. His lawyers kept requesting a copy of the computer to do their own forensics on it. A few weeks later they returned all PCs except the one supposedly with things on it yet kept refusing to give a copy to his lawyer. Over a month later the cops said they found nothing and dropped all charges. He decided not to sue because as a business owner it would probably hurt his business as up to that point there was nothing public about it.

He had an open WIFI near a busy highway, that's the best reasoning for what caused the initial seizing to happen.

Technical info on TOR has most of the exit nodes being run by the feds. If they're sniffing all the networks anyways and know what TOR is doing they can correlate addresses.