FC: Day #2: U.S. v. Jim Bell report from federal court in Tacoma

[Declan McCullagh]

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,42860,00.html
   
   DOJ: Cypherpunk Threatened Feds
   by Declan McCullagh (declan at wired.com)
   9:00 a.m. Apr. 5, 2001 PDT
   
   TACOMA, Washington -- A federal prosecutor said on Wednesday that an
   Internet essayist spent months illegally compiling information about
   IRS agents through CD-ROM databases and conversations with members of
   a mailing list of "cypherpunks."
   
   Robb London, an assistant U.S. Attorney, said in court that Jim Bell
   was not conducting a legitimate investigation of government wrongdoing
   last year but instead was a disturbed person who had never renounced a
   political treatise he wrote entitled "Assassination Politics."
   
   "It's still on the Internet today," London said during the second day
   of the trial in federal district court. "He has not retracted it."
   
   Bell is best known for writing the long-winded thought experiment
   predicting how future technologies including untraceable digital cash,
   encryption and anonymity should allow anyone upset with the feds to
   bet on when a certain government agent will die. The winner,
   presumably the assassin, wins the pool of money.
   
   London said that while Bell may not have directly threatened IRS agent
   Jeff Gordon, "he has done it indirectly through 'Assassination
   Politics.'"
   
   Bell has pleaded not guilty to five counts of interstate stalking that
   allegedly took place last year, saying he was legally assembling
   information about government agents he thought were participating in a
   conspiracy involving illegal surveillance. He is not accused of making
   direct threats or seeking physical confrontations.
   
   As evidence of Bell's malicious intent, London showed the jury a
   photograph of four guns that Bell legally owned up until the IRS
   raided him in April 1997 during a prior prosecution. The weapons: Two
   SKS rifles, a Smith & Wesson 629 pistol, and a Ruger mini-14 rifle.
   
   London characterized this as a collection of assault weapons that
   amounted to "serious firepower" and said, "That's what the agents were
   afraid of."
   
   That prompted an objection from Bell's attorney, Robert Leen.
   "(You're) asking the jury to draw an adverse infrerence from what was,
   at the time, an exercise of a constitutional right," Leen said.
   
   The government has not alleged that Bell owned firearms more recently
   than 1997. Bell pleaded guilty in July 1997 to interfering with IRS
   agents and using false Social Security numbers.
   
   U.S. District Judge Jack Tanner allowed the government to show to the
   jury photos of the weapons Bell once owned -- one rifle had a bayonet
   mounted on it -- and warned Bell that if he made any additional
   outbursts, he would be muzzled or hauled out of the room.
   
   Bell had interrupted Leen a few times and pounded on the table two or
   three times to get Leen's attention. Bell also wrote "SHAM" on a white
   pad of paper and held it so spectators could see.
   
   London complained that some people were downloading public documents
   through the Pacer service provided by the federal court system,
   translating the graphical TIFF images into text, and posting the
   documents on a website. He warned that soon everything will be
   "splashed all over the Internet for all to see."
   
   The prosecutor likened it to an illicit activity: "Transferring court
   documents from our computer onto the Internet."
   
   That got the attention of Tanner, an 82-year-old jurist with little
   patience for lawyers and even less patience for online open-records
   activists. He sealed the entire court file, including public documents
   like the charges against Bell, saying that "anything that's filed"
   will remain in his chambers.

[...]



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