Barrett Brown is the one-time self-proclaimed voice of Anonymous. He has not been accused of taking part in Anonymous hacks, but is clearly a thorn in the side of authority. The previous indictment in December 2012 included 12 charges relating to Brown trafficking in stolen credit card details (from the Stratfor hack) by publicizing an URL that was already public knowledge on the internet.
The latest indictment, dated January 23, 2013, contains two counts – Obstruction: Concealment of Evidence; and Obstruction: Corruptly Concealing Evidence. The gist of the accusation is that he hid two laptops and their content “prior to the execution of a search warrant... said search warrant having been issued by a United States Magistrate Judge” (count 1); and that he “did knowingly and corruptly conceal and attempt to conceal records, documents, and digital data contained on two laptop computers” (count 2).
The obstruction and concealment was not very successful. Brown’s lawyer, Jay Leiderman, commented, “they got them with some reasonable ease. This was not a mastermind of hiding things. Which makes these charges all the more absurd and unnecessary.”
There are some parallels to the Aaron Swartz case, another activist who killed himself earlier this month. “I would have thought in the wake of Aaron Swartz that the government might have learned something and might have thought twice about bringing the weight of the entire United States down upon someone when it wasn’t warranted,” says Leiderman. This indictment alone adds a potential further 20 years prison term to the earlier indictments.
“Clearly they're more worried about what they perceive as his egging people on to go after defense contractors and secret spy organizations,” said Leiderman. “Barrett believes in privacy for individuals and transparency for corporations and government. The government doesn't like his belief system. And Barrett was effective in expressing that belief system.”