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The Justice Department is set to argue Wednesday before a federal appeals court that it may prosecute people for crimes based on evidence obtained from their computers—evidence that was outside the scope of an original probable-cause search warrant.
That's a big deal in today's digital age. Society has evolved to the point that many people keep all of their papers and effects co-mingled on their computer hard drives.
The highly nuanced legal dispute initially seems innocent enough. It concerns an accountant's tax evasion conviction and two-year prison sentence in 2012 that was based on a court-authorized search and imaging of his computer files. Stavros Ganias' files were copied as part of an Army overbilling investigation into one of his clients. Holding on to the imaged files for nearly three years, Connecticut authorities discovered fresh evidence unrelated to the initial search of the files and got new search warrants to investigate more of the accountant's mirrored files that were already in the government's possession. All the while, Ganias had subsequently deleted those files from his hard drives after the government had imaged them, according to court records.
The case asks how long the government can retain somebody's computer files—files that are unrelated to a court warrant. The accountant's lawyers said that once the government got what it needed regarding the accountant's client, the remainder of Ganias' files should have been purged. Federal prosecutors disagreed and said they retained the imaged files for numerous reasons, including for authentication purposes and to allow "the government to comply with its discovery obligations imposed by the Constitution."
What if it were a 3-D capture of all things in view while executing a search warrant — like a "cop-cam" on steroids?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by SecurityGuy on Wednesday September 30 2015, @06:55PM
It doesn't say that at all.
It says that IF your hard drive has already been imaged pursuant to another perfectly valid and legal warrant, it can be searched again under another perfectly valid and legal warrant.
It does seem reasonable that they shouldn't be able to keep copies of everything forever, but this guy's argument is based on "But your honor, you shouldn't be able to consider that evidence because I deleted my copy!" Uh...no?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday September 30 2015, @07:55PM
The government needs to prove two things:
1) That they really did come up with the suspicion that the accountant was guilty of tax evasion without getting the idea from his disc image.
2) That the image was still legitimately in the government's possession for the purposes of pursuing the fraud case against the accountant's client, and was not just being held on general principles.
If both of those can be shown to be true, then they should be able to get a new search warrant to look for evidence for the new investigation. This should apply even if the image somehow came from the computer of someone unrelated to the accountant, his client, and the fraud case. That is, the fact that the fraud case involves the accountant in any way isn't relevant. What is relevant is whether there is a legitimate reason for the government to have the image at this time, and whether the evidence they are using to establish probably cause was obtained legitimately.
(Score: 2) by PinkyGigglebrain on Wednesday September 30 2015, @10:28PM
My understanding of a search warrant is this:
You have to clearly state what you are looking for, where you are going to look for it, and why you think what you are looking for is where you will be looking for it.
IF in the execution of a valid warrant you find OBVIOUS evidence of another crime, ie: a crack pipe and some lines of cocaine on the coffee table, while executing the original warrant then that new evidence could be used against you in the prosecution of additional offenses.
If your original warrant was for evidence of embezzlement then you can look for and at any spread sheet on the HD, probably your emails too. But, can they also look at your collection of jpegs, mpgs, browser cache/history, draft letters to your mother, the explicit short story you wrote for your SO, and the rest of the files on the drive fishing for something else to investigate/charge you for?
IMHO; No they can't. once they have searched the drive for evidence related to the original complaint they have no further right to search around in your private papers, and they sure as Hells don't have right to hang onto those extra files after the original investigation is complete.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."