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Silk Road Journal Found On Ulbricht's Laptop: "Everyone Knows Too Much"
sarahnaomi writes On Wednesday, prosecutors in the Silk Road trial began to lay out the wealth of evidence found on the laptop taken from accused kingpin Ross Ulbricht in a San Francisco library in October 2013. The evidence presented by prosecutor Timothy Howard was the most comprehensive and damning thus far, including more than a thousand pages of chats between the site's pseudonymous operator Dread Pirate Roberts and Silk Road administrators. Also entered into evidence was a journal that dates back to at least 2010 describing the creation and operation of the site. FBI computer scientist Thomas Kiernan, the second witness in the trial, testified about the day Ulbricht was arrested and the evidence gathered from his laptop.
You eventually need to decrypt your own files so you can use them, so the trick is to catch the person when they're actually sitting at their machine using it so that they don't have time to slam the lid on the laptop. If they can do that they can plug in an external drive and copy everything, unencrypted. They got him when he was at the SF public library, agents probably swooped in and manhandled him before he could react.
And finally, once the FBI is there, knocking down your door (metaphorically speaking), you're pretty much fucked. The investigation that led them to you is probably more than enough to indict you and probably get the conviction, and refusing to turn over your keys once they already have you pinned down will be viewed as contempt of court and you'll sit in prison for a long damned time without a trial. This is why, from what I can tell, the defense is mainly focused on the procedure/evidence that led the FBI to him (poisoning the well) since if they can't give a good accounting for how they connected him to the SR, then all that evidence is for nothing if they used illegal techniques to get it.
If you were me, you'd be good lookin'. - six string samurai
Prior to that, the FBI took control of a forum mod's account. They asked "dread" in chat to look into something on the site that required him to log in as an admin. When they grabbed his laptop, a window with him logged into the site admin account was open. That's pretty damning evidence even without the journal.
No.
Evidence is an attribute that that exists only after criteria are met. I can destroy my hard drive today and be charged with a crime tomorrow. When the authorities realize what I have done, there's nothing they can do. The hard drive only becomes evidence after probable cause has been established and a warrant has been issued and I am made aware that my hard drive is evidence.
There are exceptions, but not as relates to this matter.
You are an asshat and what pisses me off is that you know damn well that you are making a false statement.
So fuck you very much.
It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.