Feds Seize Barrett Brown’s Legal Defense Fund

First the feds charge Barrett Brown with crimes that, if he’s found guilty, could keep him in jail for 100 years. They deny him bail, which means he’ll have been behind bars for a year before he gets a trial in September. They go after his mom for obstruction. And now they’re taking his money. When the feds learned that his legal defense fund has raised $20,000, they said, “Yep, we’ll take that. Before the end of the month, if you please.” I guess this is the way it works. If, say, someone donated $1 million to Barrett’s legal defense, it wouldn’t make sense that Barrett would be allowed to use a public defender (which he is). But come on. Doesn’t it feel like the government is just running up the score now?