United States v. The Internet: America’s Most Wanted May Look A Lot Like You
If recent efforts from federal prosecutors are any indication, one of the most dangerous criminal profiles in America includes some or all of the following: white, male, libertarian, computer-savvy, critical of the status quo.
The United States government has some unusual public enemies lately. If recent efforts from federal prosecutors and the federal courts are any indication, one of the most dangerous criminal profiles in America includes some or all of the following: white, male, libertarian, computer-savvy, critical of the status quo. No criminal history. Strong family ties. Probably well-educated. Possibly an Eagle Scout. May or may not be a hipster.
Sound familiar, readers? Though that profile might resemble you or someone you know, make no mistake. The feds are dead serious. Serious as a DOS attack.
No one may understand the U.S. government’s seriousness more than Ross Ulbricht. On May 29, U.S. District Judge Katherine Bolan Forrest sentenced Ulbricht to life in prison without the possibility of release. He was convicted in February of this year of conspiracy and money laundering charges stemming from his supposed role as “Dread Pirate Roberts,” the operator of Silk Road. Silk Road was an online marketplace where anonymous buyers and sellers could trade goods and services for the quasi-currency Bitcoin. Run through the Tor network, Silk Road operated on the Dark Web, a virtual space inaccessible without specialized software or access authorization.
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While not everything for sale on Silk Road was illegal, much was. It was perhaps most notorious for facilitating the sale of illegal drugs. The site functioned as forum for the transactions, allowing users to leave reviews, connecting those buying with those selling, while not itself moving product. It made its money through a small commission off of each exchange. Many media accounts describe Silk Road as “the eBay of drugs,” though you never seem to hear eBay described as “the Silk Road of crappy used purses, garage-sale quality housewares, and cheap 8GB RAM from China.”
Ross Ulbricht, the alleged mastermind, is 31 years old. Born in Austin, Texas, Ross satisfied each of the criteria listed above, including being both an Eagle Scout and, by most standards, a hipster. The Silk Road enterprise rose from his political and social beliefs, like a libertarian thought experiment gone wrong. At his sentencing, he told the court, “I’m not a greedy or vain person by nature. I wasn’t raised that way. I remember clearly why I started Silk Road. I wanted to empower people to be able to make choices for themselves, and have privacy and anonymity. I’m not going to say that to justify anything that happened, because it doesn’t. I just want to set the record straight.”
Ulbricht fought the charges against him and lost. Unmoved, Judge Forrest imposed a sentence that ensures that Ross Ulbricht will die in prison, a sentence which exceeded even what prosecutors had called for in the case. Ulbricht quickly filed his appeal.
Ross represents a particular type of law enforcement target of late, however unlikely his profile may seem. Federal prosecutors are currently pursuing many individuals allegedly involved with Dark Web marketplaces, Bitcoin, and similar activities. Many of those individuals look a lot like Ross. They are predominantly young, white males, hell-bent on free market econ and individual autonomy, and convinced that they’ve used their technology know-how to create a miniature libertarian utopia. Guys wearing flannel, t-shirts with ironic slogans, and a perpetual self-satisfied sneers on their faces. The kind of dude whose worst offense you expect to be loudly thumping his copy of The Road to Serfdom while at the dinner table.
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In Blake Benthall’s case, he may have been thumping his Bible too. Benthall, age 26, was arrested in November 2014 for allegedly heading up Silk Road 2.0, the nearly identical successor to the first site. Like Ross, Blake is a Texan who found his way to San Francisco. Like Ross, Blake was an Eagle Scout. After being homeschooled in Houston, Blake attended Florida College, a small Christian school. His computer skills eventually took him to the Bay Area, where, at the time of his arrest, he was working for Space X. According to friends, Blake conducted Bible studies with neighbors, loved Ron Paul, and did not himself abuse drugs.
So, basically your typical Public Enemy #1.
Blake’s case remains unresolved, but Ross Ulbricht’s treatment cannot be encouraging for the man accused of heading up the next generation of Silk Road.
Judge Forrest told Ulbricht at his sentencing, “You are first. For those considering stepping into your shoes, they need to understand, there will be very severe consequences. There must be no doubt that lawlessness will not be tolerated.”
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According to the Justice Department, the drug kingpins and henchmen of organized crime online may not look like the ones you’d expect to see peddling dope on a street corner, but they are dangerous nonetheless. And now that law enforcement knows the profile of America’s most wanted, they can zero in on suspicious characters who fit the profile.
But who else fits the profile?
In an online piece for Reason Magazine, Nick Gillespie criticized the sentence handed down in Ross Ulbricht’s case. The May 31 article titled “Silk Road Trial: Read Ross Ulbricht’s Haunting Sentencing Letter to Judge” prompted readers to “read the prosecution’s sentencing letter to get a sense of how revolutionary Silk Road was.” Comments following the article frothed with the frustration and disgust one would expect from Reason’s largely libertarian readership. For example, one comment reads, “Its judges like these that should be taken out back and shot,” while another asks “Why waste ammunition? Wood chippers get the message across clearly.” Another wistful commentor writes, “I hope there is a special place in hell reserved for that horrible woman.”
Although these comments sound like my typical weekend reading, Judge Forrest might be edgy after meting out a merciless punishment for a cause celebre of the computer world. To be fair, she was the victim of “doxxing” by Ulbricht supporters earlier this year.
Loath though I am to employ the cliche . . . what happens next will shock you.
The government thinks that these and other comments constitute criminal threats, and it wants Reason to cough up the information leading to the identities of the commentors. As reported by Popehat’s Ken White, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York issued a subpoena to Reason, demanding that the libertarian outfit provide a grand jury with “any and all identifying information” regarding the authors of some of the comments. Prosecutors are pursuing alleged violations of Title 18, United States Code, Section 875 — the same statute outlawing threats that the Supreme Court recently looked at in Elonis v. U.S.
Popehat does an excellent job of analyzing the case. Others are speaking up too.
The notion that online hyperbole and puerility of the sort in the Reason comments earns you a federal criminal investigation (or worse) is gobsmacking for most Americans. The only people who are not surprised by this government overreach may be libertarians. So, ironically, the U.S. Attorney’s Office is targeting people who already expected their government to behave badly in exactly this sort of way.
Do you know anyone who fits that description?
Libertarian computer nerds, beware. Watch out, if you are prone to fits of online pique. Preet Bharara, U.S. Attorney for the S.D.N.Y., may be coming for you.
Earlier: Don’t Threaten A Federal Judge — Yes That Applies To You Anonymous Commenters
Tamara Tabo is a summa cum laude graduate of the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University, where she served as Editor-in-Chief of the school’s law review. After graduation, she clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit. She currently heads the Center for Legal Pedagogy at Texas Southern University, an institute applying cognitive science to improvements in legal education. You can reach her at tabo.atl@gmail.com.
