Agreed regarding the usage of parallel construction-- I am sure that somewhere in the government's internal guidelines on when to use parallel construction there is a catchall clause providing exemption for "exigent circumstances" which allows it to be abused domestically for any purpose.
This case now reeks of heavy NSA involvement merely passed to the FBI for the actual enforcement side of things.
I'm not sure if there's actually an angle here, but it would be extremely interesting if the defendants were able to impeach the FBI's evidence to such a degree so as to force an admittance of parallel construction. It's a no brainer that something fishy happened here.
They'd drop the case before they admitted parallel construction. The old Silk Road is gone and if Ross Ulbricht isn't innocent he won't ever be trying anything like this again knowing that the NSA and the FBI are going to be surveilling him to the best of their ability so they only thing they lose is locking him up in prison.
> I'm not sure if there's actually an angle here, but it would be extremely interesting if the defendants were able to impeach the FBI's evidence to such a degree so as to force an admittance of parallel construction. It's a no brainer that something fishy happened here.
Tbh, I think that is basically their defense if you read between the lines. This defense reads as basically:
"The FBI's explanation isn't technically possible for how they found the IP address therefore this case should be thrown out as they are lying."
The FBI will never admit to parallel construction. They get enough leeway in their testimony, etc. that they can just say "We agree to disagree on what happened" and no one would question them seriously, from a justice system perspective.
This case now reeks of heavy NSA involvement merely passed to the FBI for the actual enforcement side of things.
I'm not sure if there's actually an angle here, but it would be extremely interesting if the defendants were able to impeach the FBI's evidence to such a degree so as to force an admittance of parallel construction. It's a no brainer that something fishy happened here.