Brown is represented by the Federal Defender's office. One of his former lawyers, Jay Leiderman, says Barrett is okay with the federal defender's representation, but he'd rather have a private counsel who can spend more time at the prison with him strategizing his defense. He is soliciting funds to retain private counsel here. The funds are not going to Leiderman, who practices in another state, but to retain local counsel in Dallas. Barrett's going to need a lot more than the $4,500. collected so far.
Barrett's account of the raid at his mother's house is here.
Barrett is charged with with, among other things, threatening a federal officer. He made a video after a search of his apartment.
The video, titled “Why I’m Going to Destroy FBI Agent Robert Smith Part Three: Revenge of the Lithe” was accompanied by a note apparently posted by Brown that read: “Send all info on Agent Robert Smith to barriticus@gmail.com so FBI can watch me look up his kids. It’s all legal, folks, Palantir chief counsel Matt Long already signed off on it when Themis planned worse.”
The charges in the second case relate to the Stratford leak (background here.) Does anyone else see Anonymous Sabu's hand in this? I checked his docket last night and there's nothing but sealed documents and a request for a 6 month postponement (his cooperation isn't over - note to cooperators: find out how long you could be on the hook, you may be surprised to learn you will be working for the feds for years.)
Jeremy Hammond is charged in New York with the Stratfor leak. He's being held without bond. His Superseding Indictment is here. He's now litigating a motion to recuse the judge, whose husband, a lawyer, is on the list of persons whose email addresses were hacked from Stratfor. The government says it's no big deal, they didn't get his credit card info, because he never bought anything from Stratfor. Did they get his password to Stratfor?
Stratfor lets you read articles for free if you sign up for a two week free subscription. You register with a user name and password, and a real e-mail account. Since most people use the same passwords, or some variation of it, for multiple accounts (otherwise you'd have to carry a notebook with all your 150 passwords with you at all times), I would think publicizing your password with a Stratfor password is enough of a breach. I spent a week renaming all my passords with unique one, which included upper letter, symbol, number and lower letters. My password notebook, which I now carry everywhere, has become as indispensable as my calendar. (I've tried password databases, but they are too cumbersome.)
Back to Barrett: He's apparently taking the optimistic view that the third case was filed because the Stratfor charges are weak, More likely, in my view, they want to ramp up the pressure for a plea. Didn't we just hear this story last week with Aaron Swartz? That didn't go well for the Government, but it went even worse for Aaron.
It looks to me like they forced Barrett's mother to cooperate with them. Why: Her name is referenced as initials and she hasn't been charged so far as I can tell. Shades of Monica Lewinsky and Susan MacDougal. Congress needs to enact a parent-child privilege.
For more info on Barrett, go to FreeBarrettBrown, Ars Technica, Wired , RT News, and the Dallas Observer.
I can almost envision Barrett deciding to represent himself pro se. In my view, that would be the worst decision he could make. If he's convicted at trial and loses his appeal, the only thing left is a habeas. One of the frequently cited grounds for habeas claims is ineffective assistance of counsel. If Barrett doesn't even have a lawyer to pin bad lawyering on because he chooses to go pro se, he is essentially preventing himself from being able to use the argument.
Federal Defenders are extremely experienced and well trained. Sure, they are understaffed, but when they get a case that is headed towards trial, they find the time, and they fight aggressively and knowledgeably. Many are top notch lawyers by any standard: Judy Clarke, for one. Barrett now has three cases, each with a distinct set of facts and charges. If he decides to fight all of them with private counsel, he's going to need to fork over beaucoup fees and costs not just for lawyers, but for experts, and investigators. With the public defender, he receives this at no charge.
Barrett is between a rock and a hard place. He's a smart guy. He should know if his lawyer can't spend as much time as he'd like with him, he should write out all his ideas and mail them to him. His public defender will read every letter.
Hang in there Barrett. I think the odds of you winning all three cases are not great from a statistical standpoint, but maybe if you agree to plead to a bit of jail time, even if you don't cooperate, your lawyer can get the rest to go away.
