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