Judge Rejects Defense That FBI Illegally Hacked Silk Road - On a Technicality

Unfortunately, it looks like Ross is done.

Lawyers for Ross Ulbricht have spent the last two months shifting the focus from their client, charged with creating the billion-dollar drug market the Silk Road, and putting it onto the potential illegality of the FBI's investigation. Now the judge in that case has spoken, and it's clear she intends to put Ulbricht on trial, not the FBI.

In a 38-page ruling Friday, Judge Katherine Forrest dismissed the defense's motion to suppress evidence that hinged on the argument that law enforcement had violated Ulbricht's Fourth Amendment right to privacy from unreasonable searches. Just last week, Ulbricht's lawyers went so far as to contend that the FBI had illegally hacked a Silk Road server in Iceland without a warrant to determine its location.

But the Judge's rejection of that argument comes down to what may be seen as a fateful technicality: she argues that even if the FBI did hack the Silk Road server, Ulbricht hadn't sufficiently demonstrated that the server belonged to him, and thus can't claim that his privacy rights were violated by its search. "Defendant has...brought what he must certainly understand is a fatally deficient motion to suppress [evidence]," the judge writes. "He has failed to take the one step he needed to take to allow the Court to consider his substantive claims regarding the investigation: he has failed to submit anything establishing that he has a personal privacy interest in the Icelandic server or any of the other items imaged and/or searched and/or seized."

http://www.wired.com/2014/10/silk-road-judge-technicality/


Comments


[87 Points] None:

To be honest, I'd have been more surprised if she hadn't rejected it. I'm not American, but it seems to me when the feds want you, you're going down irrespective of guilt.

Ross was an idealist, he's going to spend the rest of his life paying for it. On a personal level, it makes me incredibly sad because, as an addict, Silk Road kept me safe. Addiction breeds desperation, and unfortunately when you're female not all dealers want money. I have yet to encounter a vendor on a DNM who wants anything other than bitcoin. But to talk about the harm reduction would mean accepting people are always going to use drugs, and so maybe DNM's aren't these evil places trying to corrupt the innocent minds of da kidz.

Poor Ross.


[18 Points] mrforrest:

I'm getting a divorce.


[18 Points] None:

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[14 Points] stir_fried_abortion:

Stop embarrassing yourselves with all the ridiculous talk about the fix being in and the laws not mattering. The government still has to prove its case to a jury and has to follow the law as enforced by the judge. If you think it's a rubber stamp and they'll convict him without providing evidence then you're ignorant of the law and the legal process.

If you've actually read the indictment, you should all know that Ulbricht made a lot of very stupid mistakes and the government has shit-tons of evidence against him.

Most of you (along with me) disagree with the laws on the books, which is fine. Vote, lobby, donate...do whatever you want to effect change in those laws. But quit pretending that those laws don't exist and that Ulbricht didn't break them.

It's quite simple to support Ulbricht's ideals regarding drugs, while at the same time acknowledging that he broke the law as it exists. Why is it that so many of you seem to think those two things are mutually exclusive? Venting your anger by projecting non-existent corruption onto the federal court system in this case is childish and counter-productive and does no one any good.

DPR broke the law. He got caught. Regardless of what you think of the current laws, creating a fictional narrative that an innocent man is being railroaded by a corrupt system is fucking stupid.


[10 Points] None:

Shouldn't that mean the case gets thrown out since the judge says they can't prove it's his servers?


[11 Points] fuckoffplsthankyou:

I hope somebody gets a helicopter and breaks him out of prison.

EDIT: Or jury nullification.


[9 Points] None:

[deleted]


[9 Points] iamjustsomejerk:

Well I hope they at least decide to give him some sort of deal so he doesn't have to waste the rest of his life locked up. He's too young for that to happen to him, especially for something that was non-violent.


[7 Points] None:

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[7 Points] wolfboy784:

They still hacked a website, shouldn't that be illegal no matter what?


[2 Points] shortbusoneohone:

Let this be a learning experience for anyone who intends to erect their own market — set up your own servers.


[2 Points] tvgn9545:

I would think an equally serious problem for him is that they seized all those BTC, which results in tax evasion or laundering charges.


[1 Points] AlwaysDankrupt:

How can they say the server isn't his while they are locking him up for owning the server...?


[0 Points] cj5:

Wait! So if he never claimed it was his server, I am a bit miffed on how the FBI could draw a connection between it and Ulbricht. If they don't know whether or not it was his, how can it be used as evidence in this case?


[-1 Points] unclenumberone:

Someone needs to drop by that judges house and see if she wants to buy some girl guide cookies..


[-1 Points] RaymondReddingtonc9:

Im still wondering how much time he is facing right now :(


[0 Points] None:

Nigga, he made a drug dealing website that sold millions of dollars worth of drugs. You think a Judge is going to care about his rights? You think the Judge is going to be on his side? You guys are crazy as hell if you thought so. When are Judges ever on Kingpins sides? LOLNEVER. So if you are still giving out hope he'll get out of prison, free, cleanly, nothing more, you are a complete lunatic.


[-13 Points] None:

The dude was stupid and arrogant and tried to have people killed for the sake of an internet shakedown street.