The Other McCain

"One should either write ruthlessly what one believes to be the truth, or else shut up." — Arthur Koestler

‘Another Person Known to the Grand Jury’ in the Barrett Brown Indictment?

Posted on | November 18, 2012 | 16 Comments

Barrett Brown calmly explains why he’s going to ‘destroy’ an FBI agent

On Sept. 12, former Anonymous spokesman Barrett Brown was arrested in Texas after he posted a bizarre YouTube video rant in which he threatened to “destroy” an FBI Special Agent.

In March, Brown had been raided, but not arrested, by the FBI at the time that the feds busted the “LulzSec” hackers, a splinter of Anonymous.

About a week before Brown’s meltdown, on Sept. 3, he had accosted me on Twitter, threatening to sue me for having reported the widespread suspicion that he was cooperating with the federal investigation of Anonymous. I laughed off Brown’s absurd threat, telling him he needed a psychiatrist more than he needed a lawyer. His subsequent video freakout and arrest tended to confirm my judgment. On Oct. 3, Brown was indicted on three federal felony charges:

A federal grand jury in Dallas returned a three-count indictment . . . charging Barrett Lancaster Brown in Count One with making an Internet threat; in Count Two with conspiring to make restricted personal information of an employee of the United States publically available, and in Count Three with retaliation against a federal law enforcement officer.  Brown, 31, a resident of Dallas, was taken into federal custody last month for the conduct described in the indictment.

Click here to see a PDF of the federal indictment against Brown. While it is customary to make the disclaimer that Brown is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law, I think anyone reading the indictment will conclude that the feds have got an open-and-shut case.

What I found intriguing, however, was Page Eight of the indictment, which describes Count Two against Brown for conspiring to publish “restricted information” about the FBI Special Agent and the agent’s family, “with the intent to threaaten and intimidate the Special Agent and to incite the commoission of a crime of violence against the Special Agent.” The indictment alleges that in September 2012, Brown “requested another person known to the grand jury to assist him find on the Internet restricted information” about the agent and the agent’s family “and that the other person agreed to do so, and furthermore, the other person did conduct a search on the Internet for the restricted information.”

Hmmm. Who is “another person known to the grand jury”? If Barrett Brown is facing federal prison time for conspiring to do this, why haven’t charges been filed against “another person known to the grand jury,” with whom Brown (allegedly) conspired?

This intrigues me because I know that Barrett Brown was in communication with Neal Rauhauser prior to Brown’s arrest. And we know that Rauhauser is rather notorious for his online research. If Barrett Brown wanted to “dox” an FBI agent, wouldn’t Neal Rauhauser be the sort of person whose assistance he might solicit?

Well, this is mere speculation, but whether or not Rauhauser was “another person known to the grand jury,” the question remains: Why hasn’t Barrett Brown’s unnamed co-conspirator been charged?

Category: Barrett Brown, Crime

Comments

16 Responses to “‘Another Person Known to the Grand Jury’ in the Barrett Brown Indictment?”

  1. Charles Johnson
    November 19th, 2012 @ 12:30 am

    Leave Barrett Brown alone! You dirty wing nuts! I admire that handsome young man…very much. He reminds me of myself.

    I’ll be sniffing some bike seats.

  2. JeffS
    November 19th, 2012 @ 12:57 am

    Maybe BB’s “unnamed co-conspirator” is cooperating with the Federal investigation.

  3. robertstacymccain
    November 19th, 2012 @ 1:09 am

    BB has pleaded not guilty. If the case goes to trial, the identity of this unnamed co-conspirator will become public.

  4. Adjoran
    November 19th, 2012 @ 1:20 am

    What I find surprising isn’t that some freak who styles himself part of the “Anonymous” hacker clique actually is just a wannabe who would turn state’s evidence in a heartbeat to save his own rump, but that the Anon crowd is so stupid and naive that they haven’t caught onto his game yet.

    It should be painfully obvious that someone who can’t actually hack anything of importance and spends his energy conducting flame wars with “anonymous” social media accounts is not the sort of little perv you let into a secret cabal.

  5. JeffS
    November 19th, 2012 @ 1:51 am

    And then we might find out something interesting, hmmmm?

  6. WJJ Hoge
    November 19th, 2012 @ 6:39 am

    There are a range of reasons not to indict a co-conspirator ranging from, on the good side, there being another, more important, case brewing to, on the bad side, protection of an asset belonging to someone further up the food chain than the FBI and US Attorney.

  7. richard mcenroe
    November 19th, 2012 @ 10:42 am

    C’Mon, Charles, you’re three times the man Barrett Brown is. Physically, anyway…

  8. Dandapani
    November 19th, 2012 @ 10:58 am

    Typos:

    “with the intent to threaaten and…”

    “to incite the commoission”

  9. Stogie Chomper
    November 19th, 2012 @ 12:22 pm

    Good to hear that another of these cyber-punks have been arrested and will be prosecuted. The book I’m reading describes him as one of the top ten Anonymous hackers, the great majority of whom are merely wannabes or “script-kiddies,” some of whom participate in DDOS attacks on targeted websites.

  10. Bob Belvedere
    November 19th, 2012 @ 1:24 pm

    Next time, Stacy, we could do without the picture…or at least a warning that it’s coming.

  11. UPDATE: Walker v. Kimberlin, Et Al. (Also: Why ‘Doxing’ Is Always Illegal) : The Other McCain
    November 19th, 2012 @ 2:16 pm

    […] Neal is behaving like a fugitive from justice at this point, which may or may not relate to the federal case against Barrett Brown that I wrote about last night. Among other things, Brown is accused of conspiring to “dox” an FBI agent and, while […]

  12. Bob
    November 24th, 2012 @ 9:24 pm

    That would be BBs girlfriend with no ID who informed on BB. The one who travelled across the country to set him up.

  13. Thai Dragonfruit
    November 25th, 2012 @ 6:32 pm

    rumor is that his lady friend has filed domestic abuse charges some one needs to look into that.

  14. Bob
    November 25th, 2012 @ 8:04 pm

    OH yeah it’s in a book so it must be true.

    Barrett Brown clearly isn’t anonymous.

  15. Stogie Chomper
    November 26th, 2012 @ 10:31 am

    Barrett Brown was indeed one of the top echelon of “Anonymous” and was their spokesman for a time. So if it’s in a book it must not be true, but if it’s in your weird little brain then that’s the absolute proof? Delusional.

  16. Elvira_ebooks
    December 1st, 2012 @ 7:00 am

    or you could ask her your damn self, coward.