DOJ: Cypherpunk Threatened Feds

"It's still on the Internet today," London said during the second day of the trial in federal district court. "He has not retracted it."

Bell is best known for writing the long-winded thought experiment predicting how future technologies including untraceable digital cash, encryption and anonymity should allow anyone upset with the feds to bet on when a certain government agent will die. The winner, presumably the assassin, wins the pool of money.

London said that while Bell may not have directly threatened IRS agent Jeff Gordon, "he has done it indirectly through 'Assassination Politics.'"

Bell has pleaded not guilty to five counts of interstate stalking that allegedly took place last year, saying he was legally assembling information about government agents he thought were participating in a conspiracy involving illegal surveillance. He is not accused of making direct threats or seeking physical confrontations.

As evidence of Bell's malicious intent, London showed the jury a photograph of four guns that Bell legally owned up until the IRS raided him in April 1997 during a prior prosecution. The weapons: Two SKS rifles, a Smith & Wesson 629 pistol, and a Ruger mini-14 rifle.

London characterized this as a collection of assault weapons that amounted to "serious firepower" and said, "That's what the agents were afraid of."

That prompted an objection from Bell's attorney, Robert Leen. "(You're) asking the jury to draw an adverse infrerence from what was, at the time, an exercise of a constitutional right," Leen said.

The government has not alleged that Bell owned firearms more recently than 1997. Bell pleaded guilty in July 1997 to interfering with IRS agents and using false Social Security numbers.

U.S. District Judge Jack Tanner allowed the government to show to the jury photos of the weapons Bell once owned -- one rifle had a bayonet mounted on it -- and warned Bell that if he made any additional outbursts, he would be muzzled or hauled out of the room.

Bell had interrupted Leen a few times and pounded on the table two or three times to get Leen's attention. Bell also wrote "SHAM" on a white pad of paper and held it so spectators could see.

London complained that some people were downloading public documents through the Pacer service provided by the federal court system, translating the graphical TIFF images into text, and posting the documents on a website. He warned that soon everything will be "splashed all over the Internet for all to see."

The prosecutor likened it to an illicit activity: "Transferring court documents from our computer onto the Internet."

That got the attention of Tanner, an 82-year-old jurist with little patience for lawyers and even less patience for online open-records activists. He sealed the entire court file, including public documents like the charges against Bell, saying that "anything that's filed" will remain in his chambers.

Leen unsuccessfully objected that his client has a "First Amendment right and a Sixth Amendment right to a fair trial."

Tanner has ruled repeatedly against the defense during the trial, denying Bell's request to subpoena a fellow prisoner who he believes was involved in a government conspiracy against him, refusing to allow Bell to require that two or three U.S. Marshals take the stand and be examined under oath about their raid of his house, and granting the prosecution great latitude in suggesting the worst about Bell.

A prosecution witness, Robert East, said he was a 15-year friend of Bell who once gave Bell some lockpicks. East also said Bell had bragged that he owned the two chemical "precursors" to the nerve agent Sarin, but East said, "I just assumed it was B.S."

Soon afterward, London suggested that Gordon and other IRS agents were afraid Bell would try to replicate a Sarin gas attack made on a Tokyo subway by a terrorist group. Bell, who received a four-year degree from MIT in chemistry, is not charged with owning illegal chemicals or using them against government agents.

After the jury had left the room during a recess, Leen asked for a mistrial. "He crossed the line," Leen said about the prosecutor. "He poisoned the jury.... Any bad thing in their lives becomes evidence against Mr. Bell."

Tanner denied the motion, ruling he had told the jury not to consider the accusation.

The prosecution also called John Young, a New York City architect who runs cryptome.org and is a frequent participant in the cypherpunks discussion list. The group, featured on the second cover of Wired magazine, is devoted to discussions of privacy, anonymity and free speech -- and now is regularly monitored by the feds.

Young testified that while browsing through a search engine of dot-gov sites, he came across an entry for a CIA office in Bend, Oregon that went by the acronym "ISTAC" and listed Deforest X. Mueller as the contact. Young then posted a message to cypherpunks in November 2000 saying: "Would anyone in the Oregon area know about a CIA organization acronymed ISTAC?"

In a followup message, Bell replied with information about a Scott Deforest Mueller, who also lived in Bend, Oregon. His message indicated he visited Mueller's house: "Two vehicles, Oregon Plates VCV976 and 902ALL are in the driveway."

It turns out that Bell got the wrong person. The government called Scott Deforest Mueller to the stand, who said he was a real estate agent with no CIA connection who felt threatened by Bell's post after the IRS' Gordon called his attention to it.

"I felt violated. I felt afraid for myself and my family," Mueller said.

Young testified that the technology to implement Bell's 'Assassination Politics' idea was viewed as not readily available, but London challenged that statement.

"(There's) at least one other individual in this world who tried to implement it," London said.

"He joked about it, yes," replied Young.

London was talking about Carl Johnson, who also was investigated by the IRS' Gordon and was convicted of making online threats after a trial that took place in the same courthouse. The government claims that a Web page Johnson placed online with the list of names of federal judges was an attempt to implement 'Assassination Politics.'

Other witnesses who testified Wednesday authenticated e-mail that Bell had sent to the cypherpunks and evidence -- including three computers -- that agents seized from Bell's home last year in Vancouver, Washington.

The judge has said he expects the trial to conclude by Friday or Monday.