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Sedition Prosecution Of Oath Keepers Members Shows The FBI Can Still Work Around Encryption

from the it's-so-dark-we-could-only-indict-eleven-defendants-at-the-same-time dept

There is no “going dark.” Despite the FBI’s protestations otherwise — mostly embodied by FBI directors with axes to grind and narratives to sell — investigators aren’t finding encryption to be much of an impediment.

The FBI claimed — using stats irrationally inflated by (according to the FBI) malfunctioning software — that law enforcement agencies were drowning in devices whose content they couldn’t access. That turned out to be a lie. Perhaps it wasn’t a deliberate lie but it had certainly proved convenient. Once the FBI recognized its error, it promised to deliver an accurate count. In May 2018, the DOJ and FBI promised to release an updated number. The agencies still have yet to do so.

That brings us to the events of last January, when a bunch of dipshits decided the only way to restore democracy was to destroy it. A raid on the Capitol building in Washington DC — egged on by lame duck president Donald Trump and a handful of Congressional toadies — culminated in BlueLivesMatter hashtaggers attacking cops who stood between them and their twisted perception of justice. The effort failed, but the stain on American history — perpetrated by self-declared “patriots” — will last forever.

Since then, the FBI and DOJ have engaged in hundreds of investigations and prosecutions. The OPSEC of Capitol raiders was sometimes nearly nonexistent, but more than a few participants knew enough to utilize encrypted services for their communications. The fact that the government has investigated, arrested, and charged hundreds of Capitol raiders shows encryption isn’t holding it back.

The blockbuster indictment brought against several members of the Oath Keepers — one that includes seldom-seen sedition charges — makes it clear the FBI still has plenty of options when it comes to dealing with encryption.

Federal investigators say they accessed encrypted Signal messages sent before the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol, and used them as evidence to charge the leader of Oath Keepers, an extremist far-right militia group, and other defendants in a seditious plot.

In a legal complaint made public on Thursday, the Department of Justice alleges the defendants conspired to forcefully oppose the transfer of power between then-President Donald Trump to Joe Biden, including by trying to take control of the U.S. Capitol.

The complaint references numerous messages sent on Signal, an end-to-end encrypted messaging app, raising questions about how authorities accessed them and recalling a longstanding point of tension between the law enforcement community and tech industry.

Questions have been raised, but there are no answers coming. The DOJ, FBI, and Signal have refused to comment on the news. But the simplest explanation is likely this: the DOJ and FBI found someone they could flip — a person who gave them access to their account and any stored messages. Other explanations are more speculative, but it’s not outside the realm of possibility that a federal agent infiltrated an Oath Keepers group, which gave them access to encrypted messages as a faux participant in the planned insurrection.

Of course, if it’s the latter, more questions will be raised. If the FBI had access during the planning, why didn’t it act to stop it? If this prosecution of Oath Keepers members has its basis in undercover work, the FBI and DOJ can expect to be asked difficult questions as the congressional investigation into the January 6th events continues.

According to the complaint [PDF], the defendants began their planning in late December 2020, using “encrypted and private communication applications.” Oath Keeper members — using these applications — agreed to grab their guns and head to Washington DC to stop the election results from being certified.

But the complaint shows the FBI had access before that. Or, at least, was able to access communications — possibly via another defendant — that dated back further than the late December messages where the raid plan coalesced. The complaint notes that members were discussing possibly violent responses to the presidential election as early as two days after it occurred. Again, these communications were taken from an “invitation-only, end-to-end encrypted group chat” on Signal.

These communications — which discussed reconnaissance of DC areas, weapons training, and what methods could be deployed to prevent election certification — continued all the way until January 6th, utilizing both Signal and encrypted email service, ProtonMail.

The complaint, obviously, does not explain how FBI investigators had access to these communications. But — in terms of the “going dark” narrative — this lack of explanation does not matter. The fact is the FBI obtained access to end-to-end encrypted messages. This alone undercuts its claims that widespread use of encrypted services and device encryption makes it impossible to investigate crimes. It can do this. It may occasionally be more difficult, but even people engaged in trying to overthrow the government aren’t able to keep the feds locked out of their discussions.

“Going dark” is still a myth. To be sure, encryption may sometimes keep investigators separated from evidence. But the rise of encryption isn’t keeping investigators locked out. They still have plenty of options, ranging from grabbing communications from cooperating defendants or witnesses to pulling massive amounts of useful data from cloud services and third parties. Holding onto this narrative when event after event proves it wrong shows the FBI is more interested in obtaining easy access to everything, rather than utilizing its considerable budget and expertise to mitigate the limitations encryption can pose.

Filed Under: doj, encryption, fbi, going dark, oath keepers, sedition, stewart rhodes
Companies: signal

Malaysian Government Claims Insulting The Queen With A Spotify Playlist Is A Threat To National Security

from the to-be-fair,-your-highness,-it-does-have-some-absolute-bangers dept

The government of Malaysia has never been shy about censoring uppity citizens for doing things like, say, exposing massive government corruption. But it also has some royalty to shield from the content created by disgruntled citizens. That’s why it recently welcomed a “fake news” law into the fold, giving the government (and the royalty it ultimately serves) yet another censorial weapon to deploy.

A local artist is the latest under the jackboot, accused of making Queen Tunku Azizah Aminah Maimunah feel bad by compiling a [checks report] Spotify playlist.

Malaysian police arrested an artist on Friday for allegedly insulting the queen by posting a satirical playlist online.

The playlist riffed off a recent controversy over the royal family and coronavirus vaccines.

The artist was detained for uploading a playlist featuring a portrait of the queen and songs that included the word “jealously,” senior police official Huzir Mohamed said in a statement.

Fahmi Reza actually had to take his seditious business to Apple after Spotify kept taking down his playlist. It’s still up at Apple Music for the moment (archived here) and it contains plenty of songs containing variations of the word “jealous.”

Yeah, it’s kind of just one joke, really. But it’s obviously an effective one. The playlist turns the Queen’s dismissive response to concerned subjugates against her. According to local reports, the Queen secured COVID vaccines for herself and her family through some powerful United Arab Emirates connections. When residents complained, the Queen pithily asked them if they were “jealous.”

So, obviously a deserving target of criticism. But when the most deserving target has all the power, things tend to turn out badly for those doing the criticizing. Somehow, this jealousy-focused playlist threatens the security of the Malaysian people.

Fahmi was being investigated for breaking Malaysia’s sedition and communications laws. He faces up to three years if convicted under the act, Huzir said.

“Tough action will be taken without any compromise against anyone who intentionally threatens public security,” the police official added.

Three years for a one-joke playlist. And it makes the point with all the subtlety a 101-song playlist composed with the assistance of a single search term can. But equally unsubtle is the government’s response. Insulting the royal family may be bad form but it shouldn’t be illegal. And this definitely doesn’t threaten the security of the nation. It only highlights the insecurity of the family sitting at the top of the country’s org chart.

Filed Under: fahma reza, free speech, insults, malaysia, playlist, queen, sedition, tunku azizah aminah maimunah
Companies: apple, spotify

Snowflake Josh Hawley Seems To Think The 1st Amendment Means Simon & Schuster Has To Give Him A Book Contract

from the not-how-any-of-it-works dept

As a reminder, Josh Hawley is a sedition supporter who should never be near any position of power ever again. In response to his ongoing support for overturning the will of the people, book publishing giant Simon & Schuster made the totally reasonable call that it would refuse to publish the book he was preparing called (hilariously) “The Tyranny of Big Tech.” Make no mistake about it: this was Hawley’s campaign book to push for the nomination in 2024. The key authoritarian strongman move is to claim that someone else is the tyrant and that you’re hear to “save” them. That’s Josh Hawley’s entire play over the last couple of years: “big tech” is the “tyrant” that he’s here to “free” you from, through idiotically bad laws. But it’s all a game to him.

Simon & Schuster’s statement was pretty straightforward:

After witnessing the disturbing, deadly insurrection that took place on Wednesday in Washington, D.C., Simon & Schuster has decided to cancel the publication of Senator Josh Hawley’s forthcoming book, THE TYRANNY OF BIG TECH. We did not come to this decision lightly. As a publisher it will always be our mission to amplify a variety of voices and viewpoints; at the same time we take seriously our larger public responsibility as citizens, and cannot support Senator Hawley after his role in what became a dangerous threat to our democracy and freedom.

Right after that came out, I joked that Hawley — as per his nonsense attacks on social media — would claim that this was “unfair censorship” and introduce a new law requiring Simon & Schuster to publish his book. That joke turned out to be closer to reality than even I expected. An hour or so later, little whiny snowflake Josh Hawley, a self-proclaimed Constitutional lawyer, who has a law degree from Yale Law School and clerked at the Supreme Court, claimed that Simon & Schuster not publishing his book was somehow an attack on the 1st Amendment.

The statement reads:

My statement on the woke mob at Simon & Schuster:

> This could not be more Orwellian. Simon & Schuster is canceling my contract because I was representing my constituents, leading a debate on the Senate floor on voter integrity, which they have now decided to redefine as sedition. Let me be clear, this is not just a contract dispute. It’s a direct assault on the First Amendment. Only approved speech can now be published. This is the Left looking to cancel everyone they don’t approve of. I will fight this cancel culture with everything I have. We’ll see you in court.

Every single thing that Hawley says in this is utter bullshit. It’s almost embarrassing. First of all, anyone who thinks that one of the world’s biggest publishing houses is a “woke mob” is delusional. But, it’s even worse to use the word “mob” the day after you helped inspire an actual mob to storm the Capitol building in order to overthrow the results of an election.

Hawley has no legal claim here at all. The 1st Amendment doesn’t govern this at all. He has every right to speak his mind, but he has no right to force a giant publishing house to give him a massive book contract to help his nascent Presidential campaign. If he wants to publish such a book, I hear Amazon has pretty good self-publishing tools that would allow him to do so. As to a bunch of other self-publishing platforms. Isn’t technology amazing?

And, since Hawley wants to be “clear” the only Orwellian here is Hawley himself — trying to spread his populist authoritarianism by redefining what words mean to suit his own naked greed and ambition.

But, really, all of this is just consequences for your own actions, Josh. You know, the kind of thing you used to pretend was what “conservatives” believed in.

Filed Under: 1st amendment, authoritarian goofball, big tech, cancel culture, contracts, free market, josh hawley, sedition
Companies: simon & schuster

San Diego Cops Who Abused Old 'Seditious Language' Law To Ticket Residents Also Engaged In Other Misconduct

from the lot-of-pretty-sketchy-looking-apples-in-here dept

A few months ago, Voice of San Diego reported cops in the city were ticketing people for the strangest crime: sedition. An old law no one had bothered to take off the books allowed officers to literally police speech. Despite several rulings showing using foul language or flipping the bird to cops is protected speech, cops in San Diego are abusing this bad law to ticket people for “contempt of cop,” which isn’t an actual crime anywhere.

“Seditious language” tickets have been handed out 83 times since 2013. The 1918 law has been used to ticket someone for singing a rap song’s lyrics within earshot of a cop. One person was even ticketed in their own home for swearing a bit too much around officers. The only data on race shows 8 of 11 recipients of these tickets were black. (No race was noted on a majority of citations Voice of San Diego examined.)

If cops are willing to abuse a bad law to punish people for swearing around officers, they’re willing to abuse their powers in other ways. Voice of San Diego has dug deeper into the “seditious language” citations and discovered further abuses by officers who are way too familiar with a law that should have been taken off the books decades ago.

Half of the San Diego Police Department officers who wrote more than one ticket for seditious language have also been accused during their careers of violating people’s rights, ranging from harassment to the arrest of peaceful protestors, a Voice of San Diego review has found. A third of those officers have also been involved in fatal or nonfatal shootings.

We’ll see if things improve a bit. The city repealed the law shortly after VOSD’s expose. But these officers’ willingness to abuse bad laws and city residents equally indicates there are more deeply rooted problems in the San Diego Police Department that a repeal isn’t going to fix.

One officer — Michael Rojas — issued two tickets to twin brothers at the same time back in 2015. One year later, he was caught on tape tackling and arresting protesters who appear to be complying with an order to disperse. This incident was recorded by another protester. Rojas was wearing a body camera but had not turned his on despite radioed orders to do so.

Officers who abused the law most often to punish people for protected speech appear to be habitual abusers.

Of the 54 SDPD officers who issued seditious language tickets, 18 gave out more than one, police records show. Of those 18, at least nine have been accused of misconduct, according to court files and news articles. Six were involved in fatal or nonfatal shootings.

So, why haven’t these citations resulted in a Constitutional challenge? Well, they’re citations. There’s no prosecution involved. Recipients pay the fine and move on. Defense lawyers, prosecutors, and judges aren’t involved. It bypasses most of the checks/balances that would have alerted PD officials and city lawmakers that something abusive was happening on their watch. And, since officers were technically enforcing the (bad) law, there’s little that can be done to discipline them.

The good news is these cops don’t have this law to abuse any more. But, unless someone is willing to address some other systemic issues, it won’t end the abuse or the careers of those willing to cite people for saying things these cops don’t like.

Filed Under: 1st amendment, abuse of power, police, police misconduct, san diego, san diego police department, sdpd, sedition, seditious language

Bill Barr Says DOJ Prosecutors Should Bring Sedition Charges Against Violent Protesters

from the what-even-the-fuck dept

If Attorney General Bill Barr is ever gifted with superlatives, the one that will stick will be “worst.”

After presiding over some civil liberties violations under Bush I, Barr has returned to AG work under Trump and seems dead set on making everyone forget his first reign of far-more-limited terror. Barr wants encryption backdoors, the end of Section 230 immunity, and law enforcement officers promoted to the rank of demigod. The public will be expected to absorb the collateral damage.

Bill Barr does know how to deliver a good speech, whether he’s preaching to the converted or, in this recent speech, preaching to some developing converts. Speaking to Hillsdale College students during their Constitution Day event, Barr said he’s trying to build a kinder, gentler DOJ.

In exercising our prosecutorial discretion, one area in which I think the Department of Justice has some work to do is recalibrating how we interpret criminal statutes.

In recent years, the Justice Department has sometimes acted more like a trade association for federal prosecutors than the administrator of a fair system of justice based on clear and sensible legal rules. In case after case, we have advanced and defended hyper-aggressive extensions of the criminal law. This is wrong and we must stop doing it.

[…]

To be clear, what I am describing is not the Al Capone situation — where you have someone who committed countless crimes and you decide to prosecute him for only the clearest violation that carries a sufficient penalty. I am talking about taking vague statutory language and then applying it to a criminal target in a novel way that is, at a minimum, hardly the clear consequence of the statutory text.

This is definitely something that could use improvement. The DOJ has engaged in plenty of bad-faith, overly-aggressive prosecutions. Almost anything involving the CFAA comes to mind.

But Barr can’t lead this reform. He doesn’t even really want it. As he was delivering this speech about prosecutorial discretion, news broke detailing the contents of a phone call Barr had with DOJ prosecutors:

Attorney General William Barr expressed frustration with some local and state prosecutors’ handling of riot-related crimes, telling top Justice Department prosecutors that he wants them to be aggressive in bringing charges related to protest violence, including exploring using a rarely used sedition law, according to a person familiar with the matter.

This isn’t discretion. This is [checks Barr’s Constitution Day speech] a “hyper-aggressive extension of criminal law,” the “taking” of “vague statutory language and applying it to a criminal target in a novel way.” Barr’s not going to practice what he preached at Hillsdale College and he doesn’t want his prosecutors engaging in restraint either.

Proving sedition is difficult. That’s why we haven’t historically charged violent protesters with sedition. There are a bunch of other federal and local statutes that capably address acts of violence or vandalism. There’s no reason federal prosecutors should start pretending violence or vandalism occuring during/adjacent to anti-police brutality protests is a conspiracy to overthrow the government or “oppose by force” federal laws and statutes. There has only been one successful sedition prosecution in the last 25 years. It seems unlikely using this law to ensure protest-related prosecutions are federal is going to work.

But that’s not all. Barr also wanted DOJ prosecutors to find some way to go after Seattle’s mayor over her handling of protests in her city.

Attorney General William Barr asked Justice Department prosecutors to explore charging Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan (D) over a protest zone in the city, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

Barr asked prosecutors in the department’s civil rights division to explore charging Durkan during a call with prosecutors last week, the Times reported citing two people briefed on those discussions.

Barr’s nice words about dialing back aggressive prosecutions were aimed solely at DOJ prosecutors who have made the mistake of going after Trump or his underlings in the administration. Barr doesn’t care about the victims of over-prosecution who don’t have connections to the White House. Those people are still on their own and still subject to the whims of prosecutors who have been given free reign to interpret the law for maximum prosecutorial efficiency. Barr said the quiet part loud later in his Hillsdale speech:

Rather than root out true crimes — while leaving ethically dubious conduct to the voters — our prosecutors have all too often inserted themselves into the political process based on the flimsiest of legal theories. We have seen this time and again, with prosecutors bringing ill-conceived charges against prominent political figures, or launching debilitating investigations that thrust the Justice Department into the middle of the political process and preempt the ability of the people to decide.

On one hand, this is a sickening display of sycophancy. On the other hand, it will save the taxpayers some money. No sense wasting time prosecuting someone Trump’s just going to pardon.

Barr’s day of awfulness finally came to end with this unbelievably hot take in response to a student’s question about COVID-19 lockdowns. There’s no way to really brace yourself for his response:

“You know, putting a national lockdown, stay at home orders, is like house arrest. Other than slavery, which was a different kind of restraint, this is the greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history,” Barr said as a round of applause came from the crowd.

The Greatest Intrusion. Well. OK then.

Uh, let?s see: internment camps, literacy tests, segregation, no-fly lists, cointelpro, TALON database, NSA warrantless wiretaps

Bill Barr approved and oversaw one of the most legally dubious dragnet surveillance programs ever known, spying on billions of US telephone calls https://t.co/kBB9IlNf9Z

— Dell Cameron (@dellcam) September 17, 2020

Bill Barr can no longer be satirized. He’d be an unsubtle farce capable of gathering only the cheapest laughs if he wasn’t actually in charge of the goddamn Department of Justice. This makes him frightening, rather than pitiable.

Filed Under: doj, law enforcement, protests, sedition, william barr

San Diego Police Officers Are Using An Old Sedition Law To Punish People For Swearing Around Cops

from the fuck-the-police-but-especially-these-guys dept

It’s pretty well established that offensive hand gestures are covered by the First Amendment, even when it’s a cop receiving the finger. This free speech has resulted in “contempt of cop” arrests and citations, but there hasn’t been a federal court yet willing to recognize a police officer’s “right” to remain unoffended. And if the First Amendment is violated by cops in retaliation for flipping the bird, there’s going to be some Fourth Amendment violations as well.

Somehow the Constitution hasn’t gotten around to removing a terrible law from the books in San Diego, California. In this city, it’s still a criminal act to say rude things within hearing distance of a cop. (It’s actually illegal if anyone can overhear it, but only police officers have the power to turn something mildly offensive into a criminal citation.)

On the morning of July 15, 2019, Jawanza Watson and a coworker were walking to the coworker’s car after finishing their shifts at Firehouse Bar in downtown San Diego. It was close to 2 a.m.

“I was drunk, you know. I was having a good time. I know that I was feeling myself,” Watson, who now lives in Minneapolis, told VOSD. “And I was rapping a song, but it had cursing in it.”

Watson remembers a police car rolling up slowly beside him and his coworker, windows down. An officer got out and stopped Watson, he said, claiming that the lyrics he’d been singing had been directed at the police.

[…]

The officer wound up giving Watson a ticket for violating section 56.30 of the city code, which reads: “(It) is declared to be unlawful for any person within the said City of San Diego to utter or use within the hearing of one or more persons any seditious language, words or epithets.”

Yes, this law — which has been in effect since 1918 (the same year the federal government passed its Sedition Act, which led directly to the “fire in a crowded theater” trope) — is still being used by cops in San Diego to punish people for saying things the cops don’t like.

The enforcement of this law appears to be an SDPD crime of opportunity. Records obtained by the Voice of San Diego show the PD has handed out “seditious language” citations 83 times since 2013. The only records containing any information about citizens cited show that 8 of 11 recipients of seditious language tickets in 2018 were Black.

Is it seditious to sing rap lyrics out loud? Is it seditious to direct those lyrics at a cop, as was claimed by the officer citing Jawanza Watson? Of course not. It can only be criminal if it’s linked to an “imminent crime” against the government. Being drunk and boisterous in public can be its own criminal violation, but rapping out loud is just free speech. Unfortunately, no one in San Diego has raised a Constitutional challenge yet, allowing the outdated law to live on.

There’s been no Constitutional challenge because the cops abusing the law are somewhat smart about it. They downgrade the charge to a criminal infraction, ensuring no misdemeanor paperwork will be filed and make its way to the prosecutor’s office. Anything along those lines might result in someone lawyering up and getting this tool of official harassment struck down. Local prosecutors seemed to be about as surprised by the law’s existence as the recipients of these tickets.

Hilary Nemchik, a spokeswoman for the San Diego city attorney’s office, which prosecutes misdemeanors, said her office hadn’t been aware police were enforcing a section of the municipal code prohibiting seditious language. She called it “antiquated” and said deputy city attorneys would not prosecute anyone for it.

It’s not just one cop’s personal toy. The tickets examined by VOSD showed nine different officers had issued seditious language citations in 2018. This includes one citation that sounds like the SDPD considers itself more of a KGB.

Each of the 11 most recent seditious language tickets were written in downtown San Diego — except one, which the defendant received in his own home in southeastern San Diego.

There are a lot of things that define America and swearing in your own home without fear of retaliation from the government is one of them. But not when the SDPD is running things. The law, which was supposed to protect the government from being overthrown, is being used to inflict monetary pain on people who say things cops don’t like.

Filed Under: cursing, free speech, offensive speech, police, protests, san diego, san diego police, sedition