Judge inches toward demand for data on Trump inaugural protest website
A judge is pressing forward with plans to allow enforcement of a search warrant against a website used to organize protests against President Donald Trump's inauguration last January.
However, D.C. Superior Court Chief Judge Robert Morin is insisting that prosecutors won't be able to see messages and other information that demonstrators exchanged on the Disruptj20 site until he determines that every such communication is related to the ongoing investigation and prosecution of alleged rioting in downtown Washington on the same day Trump was sworn in.
"You have the right to have the warrant executed," Morin told Assistant U.S. Attorney John Borchert during a hearing Wednesday afternoon on the dispute between the government and DreamHost — the internet firm that hosted the site.
Morin said that once the firm turns over the information, investigators will be able to take an initial look at the files, but can't dig into their substance until he approves.
"Until the court has ruled ... the court is not allowing the government to inspect either [email senders'] identity or their communications," the judge said.
Just how that process will work seemed murky at Wednesday's hearing, which took nearly an hour.
Borchert indicated that prosecutors will likely propose using a series of search terms to look for emails referring to violence, but the judge said he wanted a specific explanation from the prosecution for each email or document they want access to. Just how they'd come up with that detail without seeing the messages in question was unclear.
In addition, DreamHost attorney Raymond Aghaian proposed giving the government just the metadata from the website's files. Later, he said the government could get the contents of messages with the senders and recipients blacked out until the court approves disclosure of the individual messages.
A lawyer representing visitors to the website, Paul Alan Levy of Public Citizen, urged Morin to order that email senders be notified before their messages are given to the government. However, the judge said that isn't normally done in cases involving search warrants.
Morin seemed eager Wednesday to move on with the process. He told the prosecution to prepare another order outlining a search process that doesn't permit the government to "dive into" the records without further permission.
"We'll find a way to do that," Borchert said.
"I hope you do," the judge responded.
Nearly 200 people are facing criminal riot charges in connection with violence and property damage that occurred as thousands of people marched to protest Trump assuming the presidency.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2017/09/20/trump-inaugural-protest-website-data-judge-242946
Josh Gerstein is a senior reporter for POLITICO.
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Let's hope all 200 are prosecuted