Emick BK
Emick BK
Emick BK
People / Organizations................................................................................................................. 2 Situational Overview.................................................................................................................... 3 Methods of Harassment, Etc........................................................................................................ 3 Damages.................................................................................................................................. 4 Preface - Brett Kimberlin History.................................................................................................. 5 Preface Seth Allen history......................................................................................................... 7 Harassment Timeline & Details.................................................................................................... 7 Article About Brett Kimberlin is Published................................................................................. 7 Anonymous Hacks HB Gary Federal........................................................................................ 7 Weinergate............................................................................................................................... 8 Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Accountability, Anonymous & Anonymiss....................................9 Evidence [SECTION IN PROGRESS]........................................................................................ 10
People / Organizations
Victims: Seth Allen (South Easton, MA) Patrick Frey (Los Angeles, CA) Mandy Nagy (Bedminster, NJ) Michael (Mike) Stack (Montgomery Township, NJ) Aaron Worthing, pseudonym [real name: Aaron Walker] (Manassas, VA) Also, peripherally Andrew Breitbart (Los Angeles, CA) Brett C. Kimberlin Director of VelvetRevolution.us (including Stop The Chamber) and Justice Through Music. Active supporter of "Anonymous" and "Occupy Wall Street" movement. Convicted of perjury, malicious damage by means of explosives involving personal injury, impersonation of a federal officer, possession and illegal use of Department of Defense insignia and Seal of the President of the United States, and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute marijuana, among others. Served nearly 18 years in prison of 50+ yr sentence for the Speedway Bombings in Indianapolis, IN. Neal R. Rauhauser Publicly active member of "Anonymous." Organizer/Activist with the "Occupy Wall Street" movement (ran the WeOccupyAmerica Twitter account until approximately December 2011, tweets have since been deleted); Owner of Progressive PST (political social media consulting firm). Owner of Neal Rauhauser wordpress and Tumblr blogs, suspected owner of Gaped Crusader blog, used in the harassment. Ron Brynaert former executive editor of Raw Story, fiction writer, playwright, screenplay writer. Owner of Why Are We Back in Iraq and Hackers and Fake Newz blogs, which are used in the harassment. "Darrah Ford" real identity unknown; porn blogger who runs Porn Star Babylon and Darrah Ford blog to "support porn stars but condemn the people who run the industry for how badly performers are treated." Publicly active member of "Anonymiss," female faction of Anonymous" and activist with the "Occupy Wall Street" movement (currently runs the OccupyRebellion account on Twitter). Suspected owner of Anonymiss Express, used in harassment. POTENTIAL/PERIPHERAL PERSONS OF INTEREST: It is suspected that Brett Kimberlin's business associates, Kevin Zeese and Brad Friedman, are also engaged in or aware of Kimberlin and the other perpetrators' activities against the victims, however, that is unconfirmed/unknown at this time. o Kevin Zeese attorney & board member VelvetRevolution.us, attorney & spokesperson for StopTheChamber.com (a VelvetRevolution.us campaign), legal counsel to "Anonymous" hacker collective, founder of pro-Wikileaks organizations Wikileaks Is Democracy and Bradley Manning Support Network, founder of Voters for Peace, ComeHomeAmerica.us. Founder/organizer of October2011.org, an Occupy Wall Street / Global Revolution organizing partner.
Perpetrators:
Brad Friedman - publisher of The BRAD BLOG, covers "election integrity and national security whistleblowers", co-founder of VelvetRevolution.us and a Fellow at the progressive Commonweal Institute. Lane Lipton owner of Qritiq blog, where much of the collaboration occurs out in the public's view "Kid Kenoma" owner of Kid Kenoma blog, where much of the collaboration also occurs out in the public's view "Lou Aubuchont" harassed Seth Allen; friend of Brett Kimberlin and Brad Friedman. Suspected owner of Just Call Me Lefty blog, used in the harassment.
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Situational Overview
[CREATE & INSERT VISUAL DEPICTING TIMELINE AND OVERALL CORRELATION OF STORIES & EVENTS] There is evidence and reason to believe that several individuals (collectively referred to herein as "perpetrators") have been working together in a coordinated effort to defame, stalk, harass, and in some instances, terrorize the victims named above, with the ultimate goal being that of falsely implicating the victims in perceived illegal and/or unethical behavior, including accusations of conspiracy in a potential federal crime already under current investigation by the US Congress and Department of Justice. Recent harassment from one individual in particular has escalated to implied threats of pending violence (emailing victims with videos depicting bloody murder scenes, posting "mass transportation escape routes" online located near one victim's residence, etc.), with references being made to something occurring on February 6th. While the internet is the key mechanism for invoking and engineering the harassment, some of it extends beyond online activity and most certainly has had real world consequences. There have been physical encounters, such as "swatting" calls made against two of the victims which brought SWAT teams to their residences with guns drawn on the victims, and a disingenuous tip called into police of another victim implying that Muslim extremists may harm him or people at his workplace, prompting a police visit to the victim's workplace. That incident, combined with the ongoing harassment, ultimately lost that victim and his wife their jobs with that employer. The history behind the harassment begins in October of 2010, when Mandy Nagy, a writer for publisher Andrew Breitbart's publications - BigGovernment.com, BigJournalism.com, BigPeace.com and BigHollywood.com authored and published an article about Brett Kimberlin, a convicted domestic terrorist who served nearly 18 years in prison for the Speedway Bombings in Indiana, and about Kimberlin's organizations', VelvetRevolution.us and StopTheChamber.org, politically motivated attacks on the US Chamber of Commerce. Nagy actually stumbled onto Kimberlin while researching another story entirely, but upon discovering Kimberlin's history, decided the story was directly relevant to current political news and pursued further research for a story dedicated to Kimberlin. When the article posted, Patrick Frey, an assistant District Attorney in Los Angeles and blogger who writes under the pseudonym "Patterico" on his personal time, did a follow-up on it at his own site the same day. Within hours, Brett Kimberlin notified both bloggers that he intended to sue for defamation. He never did. As political activists, Kimberlin and some of his associates are already engaged in an existing federal investigation that they solicited on behalf of their organizations, StopTheChamber.com and VelvetRevolution.us (which they describe as "NGOs dedicated to corporate and government transparency and accountability"). In multiple ethics complaints and letters to the Dept of Justice and US Congress calling for a federal investigation, Kimberlin and some of his associates - who are involved with Wikileaks and with the hacking collective known as Anonymous - claim to be victims of domestic spying and cyberstalking crimes committed against them by government security contractors engaged in protecting Bank of America and the US Chamber of Commerce from attacks by Wikileaks and Anonymous. Using his connection to this investigation, Kimberlin and the other perpetrators have now also collectively targeted several of the victims listed above with the intent of falsely implicating them in a federal conspiracy. The perpetrators are urging a RICO lawsuit against government security firm HB Gary Federal, law firm Hunton & Williams, and the US Chamber of Commerce, among others, and they have indicated their intent to add several of the victims to this RICO lawsuit. [include Kimberlin's letter to Aaron Worthing's lawyer Elizabeth Kingsley as exhibit].
When Mandy Nagy once attempted to explain directly to one perpetrator, Neal Rauhauser, that his assumptions were incorrect, that he was trying to implicate innocent people in crimes and that he'd never have evidence to prove because his accusations were false, he responded, "Facts don't matter, that's the perception of the situation, and the world is going to act on that basis." Rauhauser further elaborated that our political views were the cause for his fixation, and that he was intentionally conducting certain activities online in order to convolute and thwart any attempts by law enforcement to investigate. The history of harassment is politically motivated and extends across multiple news stories over a period of fifteen (15) months, in which the perpetrators have also attempted to inject the victims' names into scandals related to said news stories as the timeline has progressed. These are detailed further in this document, but they include the following, for which I'll provide quick summaries below: Attacks on the US Chamber of Commerce The history behind the harassment begins in October of 2010, when Mandy Nagy, a writer for publisher Andrew Breitbart's publications - BigGovernment.com, BigJournalism.com, BigPeace.com and BigHollywood.com authored and published an article about Brett Kimberlin, a convicted domestic terrorist who served nearly 18 years in prison, and about the politically motivated attacks on the US Chamber of Commerce by Kimberlin's organizations, VelvetRevolution.us and StopTheChamber.org, among others. Neither Mandy Nagy nor Andrew Breitbart have any professional relationship with the US Chamber of Commerce, nor was the article coordinated with or published to benefit the US Chamber in any way. At that time, the attacks on the US Chamber were simply in the news and were very high profile, given that even our country's President was publicly attacking the organization. As political journalism goes, the subject of the article and its timing were nothing more than a relevant story to the current events of that timeframe. The perpetrators claim that the victims are engaged in a conspiracy to "harm" Brett Kimberlin on behalf of HB Gary Federal and the US Chamber of Commerce, an accusation that is 100% false. The Hacking of HB Gary Federal In Febuary 2011, the hacktivist collective known as Anonymous hacked data security firm HB Gary Federal, revealing a proposal the firm had prepared for the law firm Hunton & Williams on behalf of the law firm's clients, the US Chamber of Commerce and Bank of America to protect them from attacks by WikiLeaks, Anonymous, and several political organizations, including Velvet Revolution and StopTheChamber. Kimberlin and associates claimed to be victims of a "dirty tricks" campaign by HB Gary on behalf of the US Chamber of Commerce, and stories on their efforts to obtain federal investigations would later be published. When the hacked emails were published by Anonymous, one of them made reference to HB Gary having found the Kimberlin article published at BigJournalism.com while researching Kimberlin. This has since become additional fodder for the perpetrators to harass the victims. Perpetrators have publicly stated on numerous blogs that this is "proof" that the victims were conspiring with HB Gary/US Chamber of Commerce. Again, the accusation is 100% false. Any company or person researching Brett Kimberlin could and would easily stumble upon the article in question in search results. The Hacking of Koch Industries & Americans for Prosperity Also in February 2011, at the height of the Wisconsin protests, Anonymous targeted Koch and AFP because they believe them to be significant Republican donors and activists, as well as sympathetic to the US Chamber of Commerce. During this time, Mandy Nagy was passively following the activity of Anonymous on the heels of reporting
on the HB Gary story, and witnessed some of the Anons organizing/coordinating a DDoS attack on Koch. She tracked down a contact at the company to tip them off to the activity, and in subsequent weeks assisted Koch as a volunteer in providing further information. At the company's request, she spoke to 2 FBI agents on two occasions to share the information - Rich Thompson and Rich Anderson (who is with the DC office and recently spoke with me about the current harassment, as we feared perhaps this might also somehow be connected). Velvet Revolution / Stop the Chamber Write Complaint Letters; Announce Bar Complaints Against Hunton & Williams, Congressional Hearings, and DoJ Investigation By March 2011, Velvet Revolution had written numerous highly publicized letters, including filing ethics complaints and calling for various federal investigations outlined in detail later in this document. Brett Kimberlin claims they intend to add the victims to the list of conspirators in this complaint and will name them in a RICO suit he claims to be pursuing [cite Kimberlin letter to Aaron Worthing's attorney Beth Kingsley]. Perpetrators have collectively published these same claims online. Resignation of US Congressman Anthony Weiner (D-NY) (commonly referred to as "Weinergate") In May 2011, Congressman Weiner steps down over a "sexting" scandal. Initially, Weiner denies sending the lude photo and tweet that exposed his activities, and falsely claims that "hackers" accessed his Twitter account and tweeted the photo. He eventually resigns when numerous women come forward to speak about his activities; however, Weiner never recants his lie about being hacked. Meanwhile, because news of the scandal was first broken at Andrew Breitbart's websites, various individuals, including several of the victims noted in this document, became the target of intense harassment by those, including the perpetrators noted in this document, who still insist that Anthony Weiner was hacked. When it was reported by the NY Times that the underage girls in the scandal with whom Weiner had been tweeting turned out to be fake personas online, those victims who'd been investigating and reporting on the story have since been falsely accused of "setting up" or "entrapping" Congressman Weiner, an accusation that has now become central to this harassment campaign against the victims, and triggered the perpetrators to retroactively insert the victims in the HB Gary/US Chamber of Commerce scandal. Occupy Wall Street / Anonymous Several of the perpetrators are organizers/activists with both the "Occupy Wall Street" movement and the collective of hackers known as "Anonymous." Beginning in September 2011 when the OWS movement became public, these perpetrators (most notably Neal Rauhauser and "Darrah Ford" began harassing the victims from OWS and Anonymous related Twitter accounts. They have collaborated with perpetrators to publish false and defamatory information about the victims from these accounts, as well as to harass them on a sometimes daily basis. On numerous occasions, they have used the high exposure of the accounts to try and incite harassment of the victims by other activists, and at times have tried (unsuccessfully thus far) to entice various media outlets to pick up the false information and publish the stories. They have however succeeded in inciting harassment and garnering attention from smaller outlets and political bloggers, who are more inclined to publish information without researching or fact checking it.
7. Creating false blog profiles, email and/or social media accounts to impersonate or mock victim(s). a. In one instance, comments posted under approximately 25 different blog commenter accounts impersonating the victim (Seth Allen) have successfully caused the victim to be sued in court (by Brett Kimberlin) for $2.5 million in damages for cyberstalking and defamation (though luckily only $100.00 was awarded). b. Twitter accounts: [cite "g0atsred" account] 8. Creating numerous anonymous Twitter accounts and blog commenter accounts used to harass and defame victims on a daily basis, including accusing victims of crimes and unethical professional behavior, or to incite harassment and/or defamation. a. In one instance, blog and forum accounts were utilized to falsely accuse one victim (Mike Stack) of being an infiltrator/agitator at an "OccupyDC" protest at the National Air & Space Museum, a highly publicized incident that sparked protesters to be pepper-sprayed by police. The false accusation and numerous postings of it triggered intense harassment of the victim, including from the editor of a popular crime/news publication owned by Turner Broadcasting System. b. Another instance outlines one perpetrator's (Neal Rauhauser) admission of conspiring with the others to retaliate against victims on behalf of Brett Kimberlin /VelvetRevolution, as well as his motives for doing so: http://qritiq.wordpress.com/2011/10/04/the-conversation/#comment-1182 9. Seeking out perceived or potential "enemies" of the victim(s) in an attempt to directly or indirectly engage them in the harassment; introducing perceived or potential "enemies" of the victim(s) to one another. [cite Neal's post indicating this admission; cite Ron's attempt to get "Kman" to out Aaron] 10. Sending frivolous or outright bogus complaint letters and emails to victim(s) employer in an attempt to get victim(s) fired from their job, either due to the nature of the complaint, or due to the employer's tiring of the harassment of incessant complaints. [cite Kimberlin, et al's letters/calls to Pat Frey's office & CA Attorney General; Ron's emails to Breitbart re: Mandy, etc.] 11. Contacting other entities related to the victim in an attempt to harass and intimidate, or to file/urge charges based upon false information [cite Ron's email to Yale Law School re: Aaron; Neal's emails to CA Attorney General; Kimberlin's letters to MD Attorney General re: Breitbart; Kimberlin's emails to Baltimore & Boston FBI re: Seth Allen, etc.] 12. Contacting employers, professional associates, friends of victim(s)' associates, etc. in an attempt to harass and intimidate victims. [cite Kimberlin's threats to Beth Kingsley - Aaron Worthing's lawyer - to file bar complaints against her; cite Aaron's exhibits with Ron's phone call to "Kman's" employer's HR department; cite tweets from Darrah contacting professional associates of Mandy trying to claim Mandy/Team Breitbart, not Darrah, are stalkers) 13. Contacting press/media associates with a tip or story pitch that includes false accusations or false ethics complaints about the victim. [cite Neal's tip to Smoking Gun on false Mike Stack/OccupyDC story; cite Neal's email to Gawker re: false accusations against Pat Frey and Mandy Nagy; cite Darrah contacting
Tommy Christopher/Mediate, Eric Boehlert/Media Matters, Adam Shriver/STL Activist Hub re: "Team Breitbart" stalking, false Chamber of Commerce conspiracy story, etc.] 14. Publicly posting/tweeting false accusations about victims to Occupy Wall Street and "Anonymous" hacktivists feeds and blogs in an attempt to incite others to hack the victims or cause other harm. [cite OccupyRebellion tweets claiming we're trying to hurt Anonymous or OWS]
Damages
To date, the perpetrators have already been successful in achieving the following direct damages to some or all of the victims: Two victims were swatted (as noted above), and the incidents have yet to be fully investigated and the perpetrators definitively identified. This has caused significant concerns for their own safety and security and that of their families, as well as cost to local law enforcement agencies. Since the swattings are suspected to be related to the same group conducting the ongoing harassment, there is valid anxiety and concern that more swattings may occur and that the next victims and their families may not be as lucky to be unharmed. There is also valid concern, based upon public statements posted by Neal Rauhauser, that the perpetrators might be staging a future swatting(s) for which they intend to falsely implicate the current victims as the perpetrators. One victim (Aaron Worthing) and his wife, who were both employed at the same company, have been fired from their jobs due to other employees' fears that violence will occur at their workplace, either directly at the hands of or indirectly incited by Brett Kimberlin. This was preceded by a maliciously intended "tip" called into Fairfax County, VA police by Brett Kimberlin stating that he (Brett) was "concerned" that Aaron Worthing's place of employment might be a target of extremists/terrorists. This prompted a visit from police to the victim's employer, which was apparently the final catalyst to the victim's employer's decision. Brett Kimberlin has filed a false felony assault charge against Aaron Worthing, resulting in undue stress and financial harm to the victim, as well as interfering with Aaron's ability to find new employment as he awaits a court hearing and decision on the matter. Incessant complaint letters and calls to another victim's employer (Pat Frey) have prompted multiple meetings and discussions with other superiors about his situation, triggered an internal investigation, and potentially placed his upcoming promotion (and possibly his job as an Assistant District Attorney) at risk. Another victim (Mandy Nagy) has been reprimanded by her employer numerous times for being unavailable for assignments, due to her extended involvement in investigating and managing the harassment, etc., as well as assistance to other victims in preparing for court proceedings and meetings with their local law enforcement. The ongoing and indefinite nature of the harassment has also been a cited factor in preventing her from achieving permanent employee status. Victim Seth Allen has been successfully sued in Montgomery County Civil Court by perpetrator Brett Kimberlin, based in part on false accusations, according to the testimony of Seth Allen. The suit against Seth Allen was for defamation and cyberstalking - while the claims were determined by the judge to be unfounded, it was, in part, the online postings said to have been made by harassers impersonating Seth Allen (and suspected to be associates of Brett Kimberlin) that enabled Kimberlin to file the lawsuit in the first place. Regardless, Kimberlin frequently misrepresents this court case
and the decision in his other complaints that have followed; further, he has misrepresented it in claims he says he's emailed to various other FBI offices, notably in Baltimore, MD and Boston, MA. These claims have been made in Kimberlin's correspondence with Aaron Worthing's lawyer, and published by other perpetrators in emails to some of the victims, on Twitter, and on various blogs. [cite Neal's emails, Darrah's tweets, Qritiq blog comments] Victims Mandy Nagy, Patrick Frey, and Aaron Worthing (and peripherally Andrew Breitbart) have been falsely accused as third parties in a Montgomery County Civil Court proceeding of "conspiring with the defendant [Seth Allen] to murder [Brett Kimberlin]," a statement that has been written in the court filings that appear in the public record, and has now been uttered in public in front of court attendees on several occasions. The false accusations stem from an email that Seth Allen sent to a random group of recipients that included the victims, in looking for help finding a lawyer. That email, detailed later in this document, has since been wildly manipulated by Brett Kimberlin and frequently cited by him and by the other perpetrators as "proof" of a conspiracy to "murder him [Brett Kimberlin]." This has caused extended harassment, undue stress and may be harming the reputations of the victims. Seth Allen was also arrested in the Montgomery County Civil Court the day he appeared for the damages hearing of Brett Kimberlin's civil lawsuit on 9/14/2011, and held for more than 24 hours while he was being processed (according to Seth Allen and notes on the criminal complaint filed by Kimberlin), based on a gross misrepresentation by Kimberlin in a complaint. Given the harassing messages sent to him just prior to the court hearing, Kimberlin's complaint was intended to prevent Seth Allen from traveling to or participating in the damages hearing. This is further supported by the fact that MD prosecutors declined to take any action on Kimberlin's complaint and, by all records, dismissed it as frivolous. One victim (Mike Stack) became the target of intense harassment after one perpetrator (Neal Rauhauser) planted a false story about him online regarding a high profile incident at an "OccupyDC" protest that was in the national news. See bullet 8.a. above. Even after the photographer who shot the photograph Neal was using to make the claim came forward and insisted that Mike Stack was NOT the person in the photograph, and the photo was removed at the photographer's request from offending websites, Neal Rauhauser continued to repost it and the story at those websites and at others, indicating his intention to incite the harassment.
of Quayle, and reporters were unable to find the dealer himself. However, through an associate, the dealer said he had never been told such a story. Kimberlin described the alleged marijuana sale to Quayle to other journalists, including reporters for National Public Radio and NBC-TV, and Kimberlin was in frequent contact with reporters by telephone from the federal prison in El Reno, Okla. On Nov. 4, 1988, the Friday before the election, prison officials scheduled a press conference for Kimberlin to accommodate the number of press calls concerning his charges. At the last minute, prison officials canceled the news conference and placed Kimberlin in solitary detention. Kimberlin never paid his victims' judgment against him, despite the fact he had money. He later hid the profits from the sale of his book venture with Marc Singer, using court actions from family members to make his money inaccessible. Sandra DeLong attempted to collect on her judgment by obtaining a writ of attachment against petitioner's prison commissary account after a United States Probation Officer informed her that petitioner regularly transferred money to someone outside the prison. Petitioner promptly sued Mrs. DeLong, her lawyer, the probation officer, and various Bureau of Prisons and Department of Justice officials for money damages. Petitioner's action was not successful. See Kimberlin v. U.S. Department of Justice,788 F.2d 434 (7th Cir.1986). (also see: "Bomber's victims unable to collect judgment ;Widow getting nothing from Kimberlin," The Washington Times February 12, 1995). Kimberlin is now a political activist on the left; and directs "Justice Through Music" and "VelvetRevolution.us," which runs a number of direct action campaigns and coalitions against various right-wing causes and groups. These appear to be primarily tools for fundraising. The campaign sites include: o o o o o o o o o o o Stop The Chamber Stop Domestic Terror Hunton & Williams Watch Koch Watch Indict Breitbart Occupy for Accountability Prosecute News Corp American Crossroads Watch Disbar Torture Lawyers Protect Our Elections Restore Justice at Justice (DoJ)
and a biographical book about Brett (by NewYorker magazine journalist Mark Singer). The lawsuit was decided on 11/14/2011. Because Seth had not responded to the complaint initially, a default judgment had already been issued months prior. But Seth did appear for the 11/14/2011 damages hearing to defend himself. The judge ruled that no defamation or cyberstalking was proven, and awarded Brett only a nominal $100. [cite court documents]
Revolution's recent attacks on Breitbart admittedly made it an attractive subject, in the end, the subject of the article and its timing were in reality a very relevant story to the much more prominent current political events of that timeframe. The week leading up to the article's posting, Andrew Breitbart sent out "teaser" tweets, hinting about the upcoming story. Admittedly, because another co-founder of Velvet Revolution (Brad Friedman) has posted statements in the past concerning a major news story published by Breitbart's publications, disingenuously calling the story a "hoax", one of those tweets was a bit taunting in nature and alluded to Friedman's connection.
The tweet caught the attention of blogger Patrick Frey (aka "Patterico"), who saw the tweet and contacted Breitbart to find out more. Frey had previously covered Brad Friedman's reporting as a "hoax" the same story. Breitbart filled him in on the Kimberlin article, which prompted Frey to do some quick research online. Frey then posted a teaser at his site of the upcoming Kimberlin article the same evening. Frey's initial research that day led him to stumble upon previous writings about Kimberlin by blogger Seth Allen, aka "Socrates." While the two cannot recall for sure who contacted whom first, it was that teaser post that first introduced Frey and Seth Allen to each other, and alerted Allen to the upcoming Kimberlin article none of the victims had ever known Seth Allen prior to the article. Four days later, on October 11, 2010, the Kimberlin article was published. Frey posted a follow-up to it on Patterico the same day. The same evening, Kimberlin contacted Andrew Breitbart's sites through the general contact email link. (Breitbart is now Nagy's contract employer; she was an unpaid volunteer writer at the time of the article). The email was forwarded to Nagy in it, Kimberlin demanded her real name and contact information, citing his intention to sue for defamation. He claimed in the email that the article "relied upon Socrates (Seth Allen) as a source." His claim was 100% untrue and had no basis. Further, everything in the article was factual and based upon public record references (court docs, mainstream articles, etc.), not on a "source". Nagy responded to Kimberlin and offered him the opportunity to state anything that he felt specifically was defamatory and to provide details on why, and that she would be happy to make any necessary updates or retractions. Kimberlin never responded. Kimberlin also sent a similar email to Frey that evening as well, notifying Frey of his intention to sue. On October 18, 2010, Kimberlin filed a $2,500,000 lawsuit against Seth Allen for cyberstalking and defamation. [Note later in this document that a judge would eventually issue a default
judgment after Seth Allen failed to respond to the complaint, then award only $100 to Brett Kimberlin in November 2011.] Months passed and we heard nothing from Kimberlin. His name did not resurface again until March 2011, shortly after cybersecurity company HB Gary Federal was hacked by the hacktivist collective, "Anonymous."
It was during this time that some anti-Chamber activists seemed to be taking notice, as some of us were critical of their media's version of events and their portrayal of HB Gary and the US Chamber, because they were initially claiming that they'd been the targets of activities that were actually executed. The truth appeared to be that the proposal HB Gary developed for the clients had never been anything more than a proposal. But the disinformation snowballed and the activists' claims of harassment at the hands of HB Gary and the US Chamber was taken as fact, despite vehement denials from both that no actions had ever been carried out against the activists. HB Gary: Bar / Ethics Complaint Kevin Zeese and Brett Kimberlin issued a press release weeks later announcing that Velvet Revolution filed a bar complaint against Hunton & Williams. February 23, 2011- Today StopTheChamber filed a bar complaint against John W. Woods, Richard L. Wyatt Jr., and Robert T. Quackenboss of the Hunton & Williams Law Firm for their role in the HB Gary spying operation against us and other opponents of the US Chamber of Commerce. Their involvement in the operation on behalf of the Chamber was made plain in the HB Gary emails leaked by Anonymous. It is our intention to see the three aforementioned lawyers disciplined for their participation in this dirty tricks campaign, and for gross violations of the Washington DC code of legal ethics. [] [Hunton & Williams] solicited, conspired with and counseled three of its investigative private security firms to engage in domestic spying, fraud, forgery, extortion, cyber stalking, defamation, harassment, destruction of property, spear phishing, destruction of property, identity theft, computer scraping, cyber attacks, interference with business, civil rights violations, harassment, and theft. Complaint letter (PDF) HB Gary: Congressional Investigation
By early March 2011, Velvet Revolution had convinced 17 Democrats in Congress to call for a congressional hearing & investigation. Subsequently, some sub-committees agreed to a hearing, including the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and Capabilities, which asked the Defense Department and National Security Agency (NSA) to hand over all contracts they had signed with HBGary Federal, and working partners Palantir Technologies and Berico Technologies. http://www.forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2011/03/17/congress-opens-investigation-into-hbgaryscandal/ http://leaksource.wordpress.com/2011/03/03/congress-looks-to-investigate-hbgary-and-huntonwilliams/ HB Gary: Dept of Justice In addition, Velvet Revolution demanded an investigation from the DoJ. http://www.velvetrevolution.us/images/FOIA_DOJ_re_Themis.pdf Again, these incidents seemingly had no direct relevance at the time, as the harassment of the victims had not yet begun. It was not until October 2011, when perpetrator Neal Rauhauser posted this comment on a blog, that the victims were alerted to the motivations for the harassment and the perpetrators' admission that they intended to insert the victims into their HB Gary / US Chamber of Commerce investigation requests and to falsely implicate the victims in crimes the perpetrators were claiming the companies committed against them. It was also the first evidence of a direct threat that members of the hacktivist collective "Anonymous" would retaliate against the victims on behalf of Velvet Revolution.
Weinergate
May 2011 By May, with the HB Gary scandal still in the news and being investigated by multiple government branches, the scandal involving Representative Anthony Weiner broke. Andrew Breitbart's publications were the first to break the story. While we know now that Weiner eventually admitted to "sexting" and sending lude photos to various women, Weiner initially denied the accusations and said that people "hacked his Twitter account" after he accidentally publicly tweeted a lude photo that he'd intended to send privately. This false hacking claim sparked a barrage of online harassment from Democratic activists against anyone with the Breitbart websites who was reporting on the scandal. The harassment was also targeted at two tipsters to Breitbart, whose tip information was ultimately never used because Weiner's accidentally tweeted photo and message to a young college co-ed named Gennette Cordova had already been seen and captured on the public Twitter timeline. One of the tipsters, a person online by the name of "Dan Wolfe", had watched it happen real-time and re-tweeted the tweet, which spread like wildfire. The other tipster was Mike Stack, one of the victims named in this document. Stack and Wolfe, along with a small group of other Twitter users who'd taken an interest in Congressman Weiner, had been following the congressman's activity online for months because they had noticed that Weiner was interacting with what they believed to be young girls on Twitter. Given the anonymity that Twitter affords, there has always been some hesitation about some of the identities involved with this story. This became even more of a concern weeks after the scandal.
On June 17th, NY Times reporter Jennifer Preston revealed that several of the identities were not real girls in an article titled, Fake Identities Were Used on Twitter in Effort to Get Information on Weiner. Ms. Preston contacted and spoke to Mike Stack and several individuals, including Mandy Nagy and Patrick Frey, who had also already become suspicious about the girls, and about the other tipster, "Dan Wolfe," and were openly investigating and reporting on the matter. To date, none has been able to definitively determine who was behind the fake girls or "Dan Wolfe," but most concur that Mike Stack was likely tricked into interacting with the girls and with "Dan Wolfe." In fact, it is this development in the Weiner story that brought most of the victims together while some were acquainted with one another, none of the victims were previously in regular contact with each other. And none had ever even heard of or spoken to Mike Stack prior to Weinergate (editors with the Breitbart publications verified Stack's identity and performed a background check when we first spoke with him). When the harassment against Stack first began, following the breaking of the Weiner scandal, Mandy Nagy contacted him by phone to learn more about it and to introduce herself because she is also located in NJ, not far from where Stack resides. [CONTINUE HERE WORK IN PROGRESS] [RON BRYNAERT ENTERS THE PICTURE] [INCLUDE NEAL RAUHAUSER'S ACTIVITY + DAILY KOS POSTS + HIS BRINGING SETH INTO PICTURE] [INCLUDE SWATTINGS]