Anonymous ID: bf90be March 22, 2022, 11:23 a.m. No.15919236   🗄️.is đź”—kun   >>9245 >>9261 >>9291 >>9404 >>9614 >>9748 >>9812

In Sweeping Dual Abuse of Power, DOJ Spies on Innocent Citizen Instead of Bannon Attorney

 

In a shocking development in the criminal contempt case of Steven K. Bannon, the defense has brought forth a series of motions proving that the Department of Justice and U.S. Attorneys office sought out and received the emails and phone records of one of Bannon’s attorneys, Robert Costello, and asserts that there is reason to believe it also sought out and received the same for another of his counsel. The filings also document that innocent citizens, who also just so happen to share a name with Costello, also had their email and other information, including financial information, dispersed to the government by Google and numerous other providers, in what can be described as a fishing expedition by the DOJ…

 

https://uncoverdc.com/2022/03/22/in-sweeping-dual-abuse-of-power-doj-spies-on-innocent-citizen-instead-of-bannon-attorney/

Anonymous ID: bf90be March 22, 2022, 11:25 a.m. No.15919245   🗄️.is đź”—kun   >>9255 >>9261 >>9291 >>9404 >>9614 >>9748 >>9812

>>15919236

As asserted in a reply to the government’s opposition to a motion, attorney Costello states that the DOJ used a Grand Jury subpoena as well as an order from a federal judge to obtain the information, merely guessing at the email address that Costello may have used on various email services including Google, Comcast, and Yahoo. Additionally, the government sought and obtained phone records for Mr. Costello at his home, work office and also for an unrelated number belonging to a private citizen from carriers Verizon and T-Mobile.

 

The broad, sweeping and seemingly unconstitutional subpoenas send a chilling effect for defendants everywhere, as well as the attorneys they retain—there is no evidence that the Department of Justice employed a taint team to ascertain privilege on the materials it received. After the judge ruled the defense be granted information regarding the approval of the sweeping request as it was presented to a federal judge, it was revealed that the DOJ argued it had: “articulable facts” that reflected a “reasonable belief” that the email records it sought an Order to obtain were material to the Bannon investigation or prosecution, as required under 18 U.S.C. §2703(d). In truth, there was no reasonable basis for believing that a random email address that included Mr. Costello’s name (with a different middle initial and address) met the requisite showing, consistent with the Stored Communications Act’s purpose in protecting privacy.”

Anonymous ID: bf90be March 22, 2022, 11:26 a.m. No.15919255   🗄️.is đź”—kun   >>9261 >>9459

>>15919245

Defense counsel stated:

 

” By the time the government made whatever representations it made to a federal judge under 18 U.S.C. §2703(d) to get a November 11, 2021 Order for the voluminous Gmail records it obtained for an unrelated private citizen, it well knew that it had abused the grand jury subpoena process by seeking email records for made up email accounts it thought might yield email records for Bannon defense counsel Robert J. Costello.”