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From the FBI agent: "I erased the contents of the computer hard knowing that the court has ordered that the computer be submitted for a forensic examination. I
by codefreeordie 4y ago
From the FBI agent: "I erased the contents of the computer hard knowing that the court has ordered that the computer be submitted for a forensic examination. I did so with the intention of making the contents of the computer’s hard unavailable for forensic examination. At the time, I knew that the contents of the hard drive were relevant to an official proceeding, that is, Cause No. 5:17-CR-50010, United States v. Woods et al. I corruptly performed and had performed, the erasures with intent to impair the integrity and availability of the computer hard drive and its contents for use in that official proceeding."
In the case in question, the defendant (a state Senator) requested the laptop that contained the hard drive for examination, because it would contain evidence that they believed would demonstrate their innocence. The FBI agent was ordered to produce the laptop and did so -- but only after first purchasing and using a forensic disk-wiping service.
- mikeyouse 4y agoSmall correction - a state Senator from Missouri, not a US Senator.
- jkaplowitz 4y ago> In the case in question, the defendant (a US Senator) According to the article, the defendant is a former state senator, not a current or former US Senator. Otherwise good quote and summary!
- codefreeordie 4y agoWhoops! Fixed.
- t6jvcereio 4y agoI believe this is the case https://casetext.com/case/united-states-v-woods-260 https://casetext.com/case/united-states-v-woods-260 Does anyone understand why one FBI is helping a senator?
- jtbayly 4y agoIf the evidence he deleted was exculpatory, the correct question is why one FBI is attacking a senator, right?
- russh 4y agoI suspect he was not attacking the senator but covering his ass because he only turned over the recordings that would be bad for the senators case.
- jtbayly 4y agoI don't follow. How is hiding recordings that would exonerate the senator different from attacking the senator?
- ncmncm 4y agoThe withheld recordings might just have led the jury to distrust witnesses. Or, might have implicated other people besides. Doesn't mean the pol wasn't a crook. Or that the agent wasn't. There is often more than enough blame to go around, but prosecutors like things to look simple.
- kastagg 4y agoAn investigation is not an attack. Are Senators above the law?
- jtbayly 4y agoWe aren’t talking about an investigation. We’re talking about an FBI agent intentionally hiding and destroying evidence. Exculpatory evidence.
- mikeyouse 4y agoJust read a handful of articles -- I think the approximate timeline / subtext is as follows; The FBI started investigating a kickback scheme from a State Senator (Jon Woods) who was steering contracts to a small school in exchange for cash and payments to a nonprofit he ran from school administrators. They quickly 'flipped' one of the admins at the school (Micah Neal) who agreed to provide evidence to the FBI in exchange for a guilty plea and reduction in his own sentence. Neal offered to start recording conversations with Woods, but the FBI told him they didn't want him to / need him to (presumably because they had enough written evidence and financial detail to make the case). Neal recorded 119 conversations anyway and gave them to the FBI. When the DOJ indicted Woods, his attorneys would be given all investigative material and the FBI agent in question sent him 39 audio files. Woods' attorney realized there were missing files, so he had the court force the FBI to turn over the rest of them, and that's when the FBI agent went out and erased the laptop. Reading between the lines - the FBI agent probably sent the most 'damning' recordings, left out anything that would impugn their witness, and then panicked when he realized he was caught. The DOJ didn't use the recordings at trial and hadn't asked for them, so I suspect there was no greater motive in the deletion than trying to preserve the conviction/investigative effort. Corrupt Senator wasting taxpayer money goes to jail, bad FBI agent goes to jail, all seems fine in the end.
- bombcar 4y agoPURCHASING a disk-wiping service when DBAN is free-to-download? Freaking government over budget spending.
- BrandoElFollito 4y agoIf the laptop was somehow recent, it would have SSD(s) and DBAN is useless for these drives. Sending a TRIM request would do the job (or, generally speaking, just deleting the files). There is no reachable slack on SSD drives.
- progman32 4y agoCan you expand on this? I've recovered deleted files from SSDs. Deleting files does not automatically issue a TRIM.
- bombcar 4y agoEven a TRIM won't necessarily remove blocks entirely, just move data around such that there are open free spaces. The most secure way to erase an SSD is write just insane amounts to it, and then put it through a ballistics test with a 1911 and then throw the remaining parts into Mt Doom.
- kevin_thibedeau 4y agoYou fill the drive with random data. No optimization can refuse to store data that can't be deduped. There's still the likely possibility that extra capacity on the SSD is untouched but you can at least get the bulk of it.
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 4y agoHave you looked at DBAN's code? Would you be willing to bet your entire life that it works correctly?
- dariusj18 4y agoI wonder if the drive was erased to harm the defendant, or to protect someone else who was recorded doing crime.
- ncmncm 4y agoGood point. This guy might be a patsy, coerced to plead guilty to provide cover for somebody else.
- tunap 4y agoHeh, he had it wiped professionally and then wiped it two more times, himself. Interesting background, as the recordings came from an informer, who's recordings in question were made of his own volition... in hopes to provide more evidence to reduce his sentence in the affair(s). Wild story, with plenty of twists. The agent is def going to jail, but the missing evidence is not necessarily exculpatory. Both senators & the lobbyist were convicted on most(all?) counts. Grab some popcorn, or tune it out. YMMV.