A court ordered the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) to reveal the exploit it used to reveal the identities of systems that accessed a Tor hidden service that was serving child pornography. The FBI has responded by saying, “Nah, brah!”
In yet another case, the one involving Jay Michaud — his lawyers have now told the court that the DOJ has made it clear that despite the court ruling earlier this year that the FBI must reveal the details of the NIT/hacking tool, it will not do so (first revealed by Brad Heath).
This refusal is nothing new. The FBI has refused to turn over information about Stingray interceptors as well:
The filing goes on to point out how the FBI has similarly been refusing to reveal details of its Stingray mobile phone surveillance tools (something we’ve discussed here quite a bit), leading to convictions being overturned. As Michaud’s lawyers point out, the situation here is basically the same. If the FBI refuses to obey a court order, then the case should be dropped.
While the article does note that the Stringray case was dropped I think it’s important to note the stark difference between the way the king’s men are treated compared to regular individuals. If a court orders somebody like you or me to do something and we refuse we’re held in a cage until we decide to comply. When the FBI refused to obey a court order they go unpunished. For the sake of consistency I believe the judge should order the agents involved in the case and the heads of the FBI to be locked in a cage until they comply with the court order.
If it were you are me we would be held in a cage until we decided to comply. Not so the FBI.
You or me are individual persons. The FBI is not. The defendants should file cross motions to name individuals within a gov dept.
Also, as SCOTUS has ruled that corps are persons, I wonder if that applies to goc dept/agencies/bureaus, etc. Why wouldn’t it? And that it would, then the whole bureau could be held in contempt until they comply. There should be a push for Congress to defund entire gov depts. when it is found in contempt.
Personally, I like the idea of a field army of the people surrounding D.C. The objective is to force allegiance to integrity. Of course we’d be armed. Bloody hell, of course!