Data scientist Rebekah Jones raided

Arrest warrant issued for former Florida Department of Health analyst Rebekah Jones

 

She was told that it has nothing to do with the raid. We'll see if she actually did something to break the law, or we have a dictator for a governor.

 

Yep. It’s as if Desantis is auditioning for a future VP position

 

If this happened in NY, the same people criticizing the governor and his admin would be defending the NY governor, simply because of the D instead of the R next to his name.

 

You cannot get an arrest warrant without probable cause.

We will see if it exist.

 

I love that you fully embrace the trump mantra of always being a victim.
I have never met such a whiney group of people, it is ironic that trump and his crew popularized the term snowflake.

 

I got a funny emoji?

As an ex LEO I don’t think it’s funny when someone gets arrested without probable cause. That’s a violation of their civil rights.

 

It would cause me to pause if Cuomo had the same history with an individual. Dictator wannabes can have either letter next to their name

 

Probably true, but by the flip side is also likely true that those defending Desantis would be crying foul at Cuomo.

 

At least based upon the probable cause affidavit, there was no real justification for the investment in law enforcement resources. It was plainly meant to silence. I'll be curious to see what they have charged her with, which may be subject to suppression anyway. But this was plainly an abuse of power

 

You don’t know that without all the facts

 

You don’t think a search has ever been issued that was shady? Remember, the judge that signed it had just been put on the bench by DeSantis.

 

No, we wouldn't be if NY went after a critic for no valid legal reason. But we'll just have to wait for the facts to come out. It does seem like the state (Florida) is obsessed with this woman, but maybe there's a good reason for arresting her.

 

"The raid was based on a lie," Jones said in a tweet Saturday. "Still, the state has issued a warrant for my arrest - even though the 'crime' is not related to the warrant, the scope of the warrant, and they didn't wait for a third party to review confidential information on my computers."

Her statement... Watch is be something stupid, like she pirated the software to continue to run the GIS...

 

There’s also evidence she took the tags off a mattress

 

Yes I do. I read all the affidavits justifying the original search warrant. I wrote it up before and I'll see if I can find it but I may not be able to. But even if you accept everything they said it's true, it wouldn't come close to justifying it

 

Posted elsewhere months ago.

Two legal musings, which I may break up due to length. First, one point that I think everyone is missing about Rebekah Jones. The FDLE released their probable cause affidavit and if true, which is always questionable, it sets forth probable cause to file charges against her for violating the state version of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. ("CFAA").

One aside before we get to the facts of this case. The CFAA has been the subject of numerous abuses, including the tragic suicide of a researcher years ago. It is anachronistic and ridiculously overbroad and many respected legal commentators from all sides of the spectrum have long wanted it to be updated if not abrogated. It's ridiculous in what it covers. It was written during a far different time period but it exists, both on the federal level and in the Florida Statutes.

Jones supposedly violated the statute through unauthorized access to the state system. The state has acknowledged that at most all she did was use a fairly open system without security measures to put out an unauthorized message asking others to come forward. They seem to have evidence that she may have been guilty, although again I reserve judgment knowing how often these matters are manipulated.

But here's the thing. The evidence they already have from IP address logs is all they need to prove that so-called crime. There's absolutely no allegation that she did anything to download or steal information. Yet a judge wrongly signed off on a search warrant which allowed them to grab all of her devices which is obviously both intimidation, and invasion of privacy, and an attempt to retaliate against others still in communication with her period again, there was absolutely no legal justification to seize her devices based upon what they're charging her with, which is sending out an unauthorized message on a relatively open system. You don't need to see if she downloaded anything. You would know that from your logs. There is no allegation that she did that.

People seem to be missing that distinction. They only argue over whether she actually broke the law which she technically did, and whether the FDLE use excessive force, which they did. But seemingly lost is the fact that there was absolutely no justification for seizing her equipment, even if you accept every single thing they say as true, and even if they did so without an excessive and unnecessary display of force.

They could have filed the charges without executing a search warrant.

Absurd and indefensible. I'm glad there's a national outcry and I hope it leads to something, but it's always, I'm cynical.

 

The statute is so ridiculously vague. It only talks about "unauthorized" access, not illegal. Again, this has been debated for years and there was some suggestion that the last Congress might reform, but it didn't happen. Here is a brief discussion of the issue by Orin Kerr. Some courts have ruled that violating a website's terms of service can be criminal

Is the Supreme Court About to Take Its First Big CFAA Case?

 

It makes me happy you love it I really don't know what this has to do with Trump. I'm just pointing out how transparent some of you are.