The U.S. attorney’s office filed a motion today to dismiss most of the charges against Barrett Brown. Kevin Krause over at the DMN has more details. Barrett is off the hook for posting links to hacked data (some of which was credit card numbers). That’s the thing that got everyone worked up. Because Barrett didn’t do the hack. He just pointed people to publicly available information. If that were a crime, we’d all be in trouble. Now, though, he still has to deal with the charges of obstruction of justice and threatening a federal agent. But today’s action comes in response to a motion filed by Barrett’s defense attorney, Ahmed Ghappour. The guy has shown he’s equal to the challenge. Seems to me that, with more than a year in jail, Barrett should get off with time served at this point.
Here is a statement on today’s news from Kevin Gallagher, the director of Free Barrett Brown. And here’s how the news is being covered by various media: Guardian, Daily Dot, Salon, The Verge, Tech Dirt.