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Department Of Justice Uses Grand Jury Subpoena To Identify Anonymous Commenters ...
Popehat.com ^ | 6/8/2015 | Ken White

Posted on 06/08/2015 4:32:55 PM PDT by Skepolitic

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.

(Excerpt) Read more at popehat.com ...


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Culture/Society; Government
KEYWORDS: obamssfault; policestate; reason; silkroad; tyranny
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To: Skepolitic

The prosecutor is hanging the threat of a 20-year prison sentence on anybody who has the temerity to express the hope that there’s a special place in hell reserved for the federal judge who would sentence Ulbricht to life.

...

Oh somehow I think the comments are a bit more specific than that.


21 posted on 06/08/2015 5:15:32 PM PDT by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
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To: PAR35

Based on the threats posted at your link, the subpoenas appear to be justified.

...

I knew it, I just knew it. And then the Libertarians come over here to stir up trouble on FR without telling the whole truth.


22 posted on 06/08/2015 5:18:46 PM PDT by Moonman62 (The US has become a government with a country, rather than a country with a government.)
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To: Skepolitic
[The government] will use their discretion to decide when to bring their vast power into play . . . to be exercised on behalf of establishment political figures, not outsiders. The power is more likely to be exercised when it is consistent with the politics of the administration . . .even when [the] rhetoric is clearly protected by the First Amendment.

It has been used to try to stop even policy disagreements between political parties.

The Great Sedition Trial of 1944

The language was mild compared to the "threats" discussed here -- but the issue was great. The targets were all critics of FDR Administration postwar plans beginning with the small fry.

Remarks questioning Obama, et al. abilities and motives could result in a version to the Great Sedition Trial of 1944.. the purpose of the Great Sedition Trial of 1944 was to destroy Roosevelt's pre-war critics as attention turned to post-war matters particularly about relations with communists. IMO.

The Great Sedition Trial of 1944

FDR started with small fry and planned to move up the chain of opposition.

FDR failed. Obama might succeed, the Establishment today is arguably aging 1960s New Left Marxist-Alinsky radical, campus psycho spoiled brats and their ideological issue. The Establishment in FDR's days were Americans who eventually stopped:

". . . one of the blackest marks on the record of American jurisprudence. In the legal world, none can recall a case where so many Americans were brought to trial for political persecution and were so arrogantly denied the rights [guaranteed] an American citizen under the Constitution.”

23 posted on 06/08/2015 5:19:04 PM PDT by WilliamofCarmichael (If modern America's Man on Horseback is out there, Get on the damn horse already!)
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To: abb

For what? I assume, like some of the remarks in the article, it wasn’t conditional.

Was way back, maybe ‘99.
He posted about it. Agents were very professional.
He’d had the remark deleted.


24 posted on 06/08/2015 5:19:34 PM PDT by mrsmith (Dumb sluts: Lifeblood of the Media, Backbone of the Democrat/RINO Party!)
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To: RushIsMyTeddyBear
We’ll have to start using smoke signals. No, I’m not kidding.

John has a long mustache. The chair is against the wall.

25 posted on 06/08/2015 5:19:50 PM PDT by exit82 ("The Taliban is on the inside of the building" E. Nordstrom 10-10-12)
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To: Skepolitic

I want a list of all the grand jurors with their home addresses, work addresses, their home, work, and cell numbers, plus all email addresses.


26 posted on 06/08/2015 5:20:08 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative (Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not really out to get you.)
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To: Moonman62

Here are the comments in question.

AgammamonI5.31.15 @ lO:47AMltt
Its judges like these that should be taken out back and shot.

AlanI5.31.15 @ 12:09PMltt
It’s judges like these that will be taken out back and shot.
FTFY.

croakerI6.1.15 @ 11:06AMltt
Why waste ammunition? Wood chippers get the message across clearly. Especially if you
feed them in feet first.

Cloudbusterl6.l.15 @ 2:40PMIIt
Why do it out back? Shoot them out front, on the steps of the courthouse.

Rhywunl5.3l.15 @ 11:35AMIIt
I hope there is a special place in hell reserved for that horrible woman.

AlanI5.31.15 @ 12:11PMIIt
There is.

Product PlacementI5.31.15 @ 1:22PMIIt
I’d prefer a hellish place on Earth be reserved for her as well.

See here the subpoena.

http://popehat.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Revised-Grand-Jury-Subpoena.pdf


27 posted on 06/08/2015 5:20:15 PM PDT by abb ("News reporting is too important to be left to the journalists." Walter Abbott (1950 -))
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To: cripplecreek
I’m the one who calls Nancy Pelosi a syphilitic toad rectum.

I think it was Michael Moore you called that.

28 posted on 06/08/2015 5:23:29 PM PDT by Straight Vermonter (Liberals support high taxes on alcohol, tobacco and wealth. And all for the same reason.)
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To: Straight Vermonter

If you’ve seen one syphilitic toad rectum you’ve seen them all.


29 posted on 06/08/2015 5:25:43 PM PDT by cripplecreek ("For by wise guidance you can wage your war")
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To: abb

http://www.wired.com/2015/06/feds-want-id-web-trolls-threatened-silk-road-judge/

Andy Greenberg 06.08.15 - 7:32 pm

Feds Want to ID Web Trolls Who ‘Threatened’ Silk Road Judge


30 posted on 06/08/2015 5:27:06 PM PDT by abb ("News reporting is too important to be left to the journalists." Walter Abbott (1950 -))
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To: cripplecreek

Haha, agreed.


31 posted on 06/08/2015 5:29:26 PM PDT by Straight Vermonter (Liberals support high taxes on alcohol, tobacco and wealth. And all for the same reason.)
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To: cripplecreek
Nancy Pelosi a syphilitic toad rectum

The toad rectum part is obvious, but how could you tell which disease has been rotting her brain?

32 posted on 06/08/2015 5:32:40 PM PDT by Pollster1 ("Shall not be infringed" is unambiguous.)
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To: mrsmith

We have several. we were posting about Elian Gonzalez when the visit occurred. Posters with screen name[s] of Vet husband wife also receiver a visit.


33 posted on 06/08/2015 5:33:37 PM PDT by sport
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To: Skepolitic

THh only question is ... are we actually IN full blown Fascism? Is it too late? Furthermore, WAY too many Republicans also support these tactics. Houses need to be cleaned.


34 posted on 06/08/2015 5:35:38 PM PDT by RIghtwardHo
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To: RushIsMyTeddyBear
We’ll have to start using smoke signals. No, I’m not kidding.

People like you are the reason the EPA has a SWAT team and half a billion rounds of ammo. < / I wish that was sarcasm>

To determine the true rulers of any society, all you must do is ask yourself this question: Who is it that I am not permitted to criticize? - Voltaire

35 posted on 06/08/2015 5:47:08 PM PDT by KarlInOhio (The 1st amendment is the voice and the 2nd is the teeth of freedom. Obama wants to knock out both.)
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To: Fungi

I keep this in mind every time I comment on FR. As a WWII vet and recalling some of my grade school civics and history lessons I will be glad to walk in the footprints of the Founders of this Nation. I don’t intend to be a martyr but I do intend to live for the rights I served for and for which my only brother died for on Okinawa.


36 posted on 06/08/2015 5:53:09 PM PDT by noinfringers2
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To: KarlInOhio

Lemme see if I get your statement. You mean people ‘like me’ cowarding?


37 posted on 06/08/2015 6:01:03 PM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear (The White House is now known as "Casa Blanca".)
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To: Fungi

They may find us a little tougher nut to crack than millenials...


38 posted on 06/08/2015 6:13:48 PM PDT by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: RushIsMyTeddyBear

We are resourceful, intelligent people, unlike libtards. I bet in three days we can hook up laptops to CBs and tell the Feds to pound sound with impunity.


39 posted on 06/08/2015 6:16:52 PM PDT by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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To: noinfringers2

Thanks to you and your family for your service and their sacrifice.


40 posted on 06/08/2015 6:19:10 PM PDT by wastoute (Government cannot redistribute wealth. Government can only redistribute poverty.)
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