<story><title>How a federal spy case turned into a child pornography prosecution</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/how-national-security-powers-are-underpinning-some-ordinary-criminal-cases/2016/04/05/1a7685f4-fa36-11e5-80e4-c381214de1a3_story.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>SeanDav</author><text>If, during the entire history of the USA,  some FBI agents had never been proven to be corrupt, if judges had never been proven to be corrupt, if evidence had never been proved to be planted by authorities, then maybe, just maybe this would be justified.&lt;p&gt;In the real world, however, this is very, very scary and I consider myself lucky I am not subject to this travesty.&lt;p&gt;Since there does not appear to be any proof that he downloaded the images, or was involved in any way, other than pictures being found on various hard drives, it is quite plausible to me that the FBI&amp;#x2F;NSA&amp;#x2F;CIA planted evidence in order to blackmail him.</text></comment>
<story><title>How a federal spy case turned into a child pornography prosecution</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/how-national-security-powers-are-underpinning-some-ordinary-criminal-cases/2016/04/05/1a7685f4-fa36-11e5-80e4-c381214de1a3_story.html</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>mholt</author><text>The main problem I see is this:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; His attorney said his defense was hampered by an inability to obtain basic information about how the evidence was obtained and on what specific grounds the warrant was issued.&lt;p&gt;Authorities can obtain secret warrants and conduct ordinary criminal investigations with it, conveniently withholding the evidence from the defense attorney on the grounds that it was obtained under FISA. So now a man who is innocent of the crime they got a warrant to investigate is unable to defend himself for another, more ordinary, crime.&lt;p&gt;Not saying that crime is excusable and that jail time isn&amp;#x27;t justified for child porn, but the inability to defend himself seems unfair.</text></comment>