Patterico's Pontifications

12/1/2012

Kimberlin News: Lee Stranahan’s Site Attacked; Kimberlin/Walker Court Hearing Tuesday

Filed under: Brad Friedman,Brett Kimberlin,General,Neal Rauhauser — Patterico @ 11:34 pm



Lee Stranahan got this message from his web host:

Hello,

While monitoring the servers, it was brought to our attention that your domain, leestranahan.com, was undergoing a brute force attack. The purpose of the attack was meant to gain access to your wp-admin area, allowing an authorized person to have complete control of your site.

The email lists URLs of specific posts that have been attacked.

Many of them are related to Brett Kimberlin.

P.S. There will be a major hearing in Aaron Walker’s case against Brett Kimberlin on Tuesday. It is worth noting that Kimberlin has pled the Fifth with respect to Walker’s discovery requests. One of those requests relates to Kimberlin’s knowledge about SWATting. Ted Frank notes on Twitter that, in the civil context, the court is entitled to draw an adverse inference from a litigant’s invocation of the Fifth (something a prosecutor could never do in a criminal trial, of course).

All of this makes for a potentially very interesting day on Tuesday. And raises the question: why does Brett Kimberlin think it might incriminate him to answer a question about what he knows about SWATting?

UPDATE: Thanks to Instapundit for the link.

7/12/2012

The Kimberlin Story: The Short Version

Filed under: Brad Friedman,Brett Kimberlin,General,Neal Rauhauser — Patterico @ 12:01 am



Many people have asked for a basic and relatively brief summary of the events surrounding Brett Kimberlin, Neal Rauhauser, and Ron Brynaert — who have gone after critics with over-the-top harassment. I provided the long version of the story, with much of the supporting evidence, here. This is the shorter version. If you have been struggling to understand this story, and you feel like you don’t have the time to follow it all, this is the post for you.

I speak of myself in the third person in this post, so that this can be distributed to non-readers of this blog without confusion.

THE PEOPLE

Brett Kimberlin

  • Convicted bomber and perjurer
  • After release became leftist activist

Brett Kimberlin is the “Speedway Bomber,” who set off 8 bombs in Speedway, Indiana in 1978. He was convicted and received a 50-year prison sentence but was paroled after 14 years. In addition to the bombing convictions, he has been convicted of perjury, drug smuggling, and other offenses. One of his bombs blew off the leg of Vietnam veteran Carl DeLong, who later committed suicide as a result of his injuries. DeLong’s widow won a $1.61 million dollar judgment against Kimberlin for DeLong’s wrongful death, as well as damages relating to her own injuries from the bombing that had maimed her husband. Kimberlin was returned to prison for refusing to pay the judgment in violation of his parole. He has never paid the judgment. He claims innocence and falsely claims to have been exonerated by a secret settlement with the Justice Department. He currently runs two non-profits in Maryland: Justice Through Music and Velvet Revolution, which are generously funded through large grants from donors such as the Tides Foundation and Barbra Streisand.

Neal Rauhauser

  • Tech-savvy dirty tricks leftist operative
  • Associate of Kimberlin

Neal Rauhauser is a far-left activist who has engaged in violent rhetoric, contacts members from the hacking group Anonymous, and is an admitted associate of Brett Kimberlin’s. He has written how-to guides regarding methods to use phony identities and hide one’s Internet activities from law enforcement.

Kimberlin has described Rauhauser in open court as his “associate.” Rauhauser has written of working with Kimberlin and meeting with him personally. Rauhauser has appeared at numerous court hearings with Kimberlin. He has sat at counsel table with Kimberlin and passed him court documents. He has helped push Kimberlin’s false narrative that Kimberlin was exonerated, as well as the blatantly false claim that the judge in the DeLongs’ wrongful death suit against Kimberlin was imprisoned for extorting Kimberlin. Rauhauser has spoken of working with Kimberlin’s Velvet Revolution organization on Occupy events. In 2011, Rauhauser talked of a new job that he had, and of moving to Maryland — the state that is home to Brett Kimberlin and his “Velvet Revolution” nonprofit.

Rauhauser has supported the idea of using litigation for the express purpose of costing his political opponents both time and money. He appears to have found a kindred spirit in his associate, the serial litigant Brett Kimberlin, who has filed over 100 lawsuits, including lawsuits for insufficiently provocative pornography, and for the right to play electric guitars in federal prison.

Ron Brynaert

  • Former Raw Story editor, obsessed with Weiner and Kimberlin stories
  • Audio expert says his voice probably the SWATter’s voice

Ron Brynaert has been a guest blogger at a blog run by Brad Friedman, a partner in Brett Kimberlin’s nonprofit “Velvet Revolution.” Brynaert is a former editor of Raw Story, a publication that has formed loose partnerships and coalitions with Friedman, Friedman’s radio show, and Velvet Revolution. Brynaert was on the phone with Patrick Frey when Frey’s SWATting occurred, and an audio expert has said the voice of Stack’s and Frey’s SWATter is probably Brynaert’s. In 2011 Brynaert regularly published details of Kimberlin’s litigation on his Twitter feed and republished emails from Rauhauser. Brynaert sent Frey numerous tweets threatening to punch Frey for ignoring what Brynaert considered to be evidence of Kimberlin’s innocence in the bombings.

THE HARASSMENT

Even if no SWATtings had ever occurred, it would still be the case that Brett Kimberlin, Neal Rauhauser, and Ron Brynaert have each engaged in intimidation tactics — much of it directed at critics of Brett Kimberlin. In most cases, the tactics appear to be used as a form of “brass knuckles reputation management” — Kimberlin personally attacks and harasses anyone who dares mention his criminal history. They may disagree with what you say, but they will harass you to the ends of the earth for exercising your right to say it.

The following is a non-exhaustive list of tactics that these men have used:

  • Harassment of wives and family members
  • Publication of home addresses and pictures of people’s homes
  • Workplace complaints
  • The filing or threatening of frivolous lawsuits, often supported by false statements under oath
  • Frivolous applications for restraining orders
  • Outing people’s identities
  • Whisper campaigns
  • Frivolous claims and reports to law enforcement of criminal wrongdoing
  • Frivolous State Bar complaints or threats to file State Bar complaints
  • Publication of a photo of a nude man that was falsely claimed to be a photo of the victim
  • Defamation
  • Daily abusive name-calling, mocking, and profanity on Twitter
  • Threatening emails, tweets, or notes
  • Discussion of a victim’s personal history and past traumatic events in a disparaging manner

Each man has participated in at least some of the above tactics, often against the same victims.

THE SWATTINGS

During the same time period, there have been four SWATtings. A “SWATting” is a false claim that there has been a shooting at an innocent victim’s residence, causing the police to come to the victim’s home expecting to find a violent and armed man, when the victim has no idea what is going on. In Patrick Frey’s case, police pointed loaded firearms at him as he opened his front door. SWATting is a dangerous crime that could result in the death of innocent victims and police. The SWATtings at issue include the following victims and dates:

  • Mike Stack, June 23, 2011
  • Patrick Frey, July 1, 2011
  • Erick Erickson, May 27, 2012
  • Aaron Walker, June 25, 2012

It is not known who did the SWATtings. It has been claimed that Frey has “accused” one or more people of involvement, but this is false. However, Frey has presented evidence that could suggest circumstantial ties between these men and the SWATtings.

Animosity towards SWATting victims

Kimberlin and Brynaert both complained to Frey’s workplace, while Rauhauser has encouraged complaints against Frey, and stated that he wants to see Frey fired, prosecuted, disgraced, disbarred, imprisoned, sued, and bankrupted — all for purely political reasons.

Kimberlin and Brynaert both tried to “out” Aaron Walker’s identity when he used a pseudonym. Kimberlin succeeded. Rauhauser threatened that Kimberlin would do so.

Kimberlin’s site published Frey’s home address and pictures of his home; Kimberlin put Walker’s home address in court documents; Rauhauser published Frey’s home address.

Kimberlin, Rauhauser, and Brynaert have all made false and abusive criminal allegations against Walker and Frey.

Brynaert sent Frey numerous tweets relating to his wife, including one threatening to “shit” on his wife. Rauhauser asked his readers for pictures of Frey’s wife.

Kimberlin filed State Bar complaints against Frey and Walker. (Kimberlin’s complaint against Frey alleged, among other things, discrimination against the “disabled” — because Frey wrote about Kimberlin’s felonies, which “disable” him from voting.) Brynaert threatened State Bar complaints against Walker, Frey, and Frey’s wife; and Rauhauser has publicized Kimberlin’s State Bar complaint against Frey.

Kimberlin has threatened suit against Frey and Walker, as has Brynaert.

Walker, Erickson, and Frey have each written extensively about Kimberlin, while Stack has left a comment mocking Kimberlin.

Kimberlin unnecessarily included Walker’s home address in court documents, while a Velvet Revolution-run site published Frey’s home address.

Stack and Frey were each central figures in the Anthony Weiner story, and were both accused by Rauhauser, in documents sent to law enforcement, of somehow “setting up” Weiner.

Timing of SWATtings

The timing of certain SWATtings is also notable. Stack and Frey were SWATted while writing about the Anthony Weiner story after Weiner resigned, at a time when few were still following the story. Rauhauser is obsessed with “Weiner Trutherism” — the irrational belief that Anthony Weiner was hacked, despite Weiner’s admission that he wasn’t. Three days after Frey was SWATted — and months before Frey’s SWATting was publicly revealed — Rauhauser published a blog post titled “Patterico’s Penalization,” accusing him and a Kimberlin critic of possible involvement in cyberstalking Anthony Weiner. Later that month, again before Frey’s SWATting was publicly revealed, Rauhauser wrote a post titled “Weinergate Perps Pay Dearly” — about the two SWATting victims at that time: Mike Stack and Patrick Frey.

A Rauhauser Twitter associate named OccupyRebellion told Stack and Frey that they both have a “special place in [her] heart” and suggested that someone with “bigger balls” than her had made her enemies pay, and that she will take her secrets “to the grave.” She has insinuated that she has a close relationship with Anthony Weiner.

Erickson was SWATted two days after he first wrote and spoke publicly about Brett Kimberlin. Aaron Walker was SWATted hours after winning a well-publicized court case against Kimberlin.

Rauhauser uses same incorrect address as SWATter

Rauhauser wrote Stack a cease and desist letter addressed to Stack at the same incorrect home address used by Stack’s SWATter.

Voice comparison analysis

Presented with a sample of Ron Brynaert’s voice, the Stack and Frey SWATting calls, and a fourth anonymous caller to a BlogTalkRadio program, a voice expert stated: “it is my expert forensic examiner opinion that it is probable that all voice samples come from the same person.”

7/8/2012

Aaron Walker Shows How the Kimberlin Crowd Calls Your Self-Defense an “Attack”

Filed under: Brad Friedman,Brett Kimberlin,General,Neal Rauhauser — Patterico @ 2:30 pm



Aaron Walker has transcribed some significant bits of the July 5 hearing in which he successfully appealed Brett Kimberlin’s latest frivolous peace order — the latest example of Kimberlin’s abusing the court system with deceptive and overbearing legal actions. Go to Aaron’s post to read it all, but I’ll highlight a couple of parts here that reinforce points we’ve made here in the past: namely, that Kimberlin takes defensive actions and statements, and dishonestly characterizes them as “attacks”:

B: In the blog that you have offered to the court today, can you cite any specific portion of that blog where Mr. Walker said he was going to assault you or harm you in any way personally? Personally? Is there any particular page—

K: Over and over he has said he is going to make me pay. Make me pay.

B: For filing charges against you [Walker?] and other things that turned out not to be true, right?

K: He said he was going to make me pay, and he said he went out and bought two guns, or had two guns.

B: And the context on that was that he was afraid of you and he was going to protect himself if you came to his home, correct?

K: I have never been to his home, I would never go to his home.

Let’s stop right there. We’ve been through this before, but since Kimberlin keeps alleging that Aaron threatened him by talking about getting guns for self-defense, let’s look at precisely what Aaron said:

I also purchased a handgun. I had owned a shotgun since law school for home defense, but I wanted something I could more easily carry in public. As they say, better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it. And I made sure Kimberlin’s crew knew I was armed, to make them realize that I was not defenseless.

It’s all about Aaron defending himself. But with this crew, if you talk about defending yourself against their attacks or potential attacks, they say you’re attacking them. Back to the transcript:

B: Are you familiar with the term “SWATting?”

K: [long pause] yes.

B: And have you caused Mr. Walker to be SWATted by the Fairfax County or the Prince William County Police?

K: That is a despicable claim, and—

B: Yes or no.

K: —I resent it. I resent it! He knows I didn’t. And you know I didn’t. And you’re trying to again harass me, you are harassing me, just like—

B: I’m asking [begin crosstalk] if you are responsible for someone calling the police,[end crosstalk]

K: No! You’re harassing me. This man, this man, this man.

B: Excuse me sir, I am asking you, yes or no, are you responsible—

K: No! Absolutely not.

B: —directly or indirectly?

K: And it’s despicable!

B: So you didn’t call, or ask somebody else to call and tell the police that there have been shots fired at Mr. Walker’s home so the SWAT team would show up there. You didn’t do that, you’re not responsible?

K: Did you do that? I did it as much as you did it. I mean that’s ridiculous—

B: Sir, did you have anything to do with that or do you know who did?

K: No, I don’t.

Kimberlin says it’s harassment to ask him a question in court. In a proceeding to lift a frivolous peace order he should never have sought in the first place.

This is how these people operate, folks. They attack you — and if you have the temerity to defend yourself, or tell the world what they are doing, they call that an attack on them.

I’ll give you one more example of how this works. This one is not from Kimberlin himself, but from one of his supporters, the vile OccupyRebellion. Earlier this morning I pointed out how she threatened to publish pictures of my children and family, Lee Stranahan’s children, and Mandy Nagy’s niece — all because of the actions of a completely different person. I published a blog post last night embedding her unconscionable tweets. Here is one example:

Today — you guessed it — she is calling my blog post an “attack” on her:

It’s a playbook. You’re not allowed to defend yourself, or even point out their attacks, or they will call it an attack.

P.S. More than $706 has been raised so far for Aaron, in tribute to OccupyRebellion’s harassment of him on July 6.

7/5/2012

Neal Rauhauser Is Present to Watch Brett Kimberlin Beaten in Court Yet Again

Filed under: Brad Friedman,Brett Kimberlin,General,Neal Rauhauser — Patterico @ 11:10 pm



Aaron Worthing won the appeal of Brett Kimberlin’s peace order against him, but that was a foregone conclusion. Congratulations to him and everything, I guess, but it’s like congratulating the sun for rising again.

Here are the parts that, while also unsurprising, are well worth noting:

1) Kimberlin thinks it’s harassment to defend yourself in one of his frivolous legal actions:

Of course the highlight of the hearing came when my attorney sought to cross examine Kimberlin. Of course he gave Kimberlin an epic cross-examination back on April 11, but today he was more focused but equally effective. Interestingly, he didn’t go through the entirety of Kimberlin’s criminal history, or indeed any of it. But he did ask Kimberlin about when I was SWATted, about a week and a half ago and Kimberlin went into a rage at the suggestion. He called it a “despicable” question, falsely claiming that I and others had blamed him for it “without a shred of evidence” (in fact when I wrote about the SWATting, and talked about it on the radio, I was careful not to blame him because I can’t prove he had anything to do with it). But he was absolutely furious at even the simple question of whether or not he was involved in it, shaking his finger at my attorney in rage and saying to him, “You’re harassing me” by even asking the question. That is, a lawyer asking a person a question in court is harassment, according to Kimberlin.

and

2) Neal Rauhauser is with Brett Kimberlin all the way, baby. All. The. Way.

And there is one other thing to note. Neal Rauhauser was there again, and seen exchanging documents with Kimberlin, further verifying their connection.

But those facts were not just true today. Please note this tidbit from a commenter:

I happened to see the Norton v Kimberlin and Kimberlin v Norton event.

Kimberlin claimed that “they” were harassing him when Norton’s attorney asked him if he was convicted for perjury.

Rauhauser was there, too.

P.S. Kimberlin said it was harassment when Seth Allen filed a responsive pleading in the lawsuit Kimberlin filed against Seth Allen.

So there is a clear pattern here: Kimberlin initiates a legal action, generally frivolous, and if the opposing party has the nerve to defend himself, Kimberlin calls it harassment.

And has Neal Rauhauser helping him out.

P.P.S. If you think this is the end of all this, you’re mistaken:

I am extraordinarily grateful to @OccupyRebellion for these tweets. They are money in Aaron’s pocket. Money he needs, because as @OccupyRebellion makes quite clear, the lawfare did not end today. Why, it’s just beginning! And they’re damned proud of it!

So go to Aaron’s site and hit one of the donation buttons.

Do it for @OccupyRebellion.

Or do it for the “so-called First Amendment.”

I just did. You should too.

FLASHBACK: If only someone had talked about Neal Rauhauser’s connection to Brett Kimberlin a long time ago!

Oh, wait! Someone did — one year ago today:

July 5, 2011

Neal Rauhauser’s New Friend: Brett Kimberlin, Speedway Bomber; Rauhauser Asks Kos Kids for a Picture of My Wife

Always trust content from Patterico.

7/2/2012

Aaron Walker Posts Transcript of Brett Kimberlin Deceiving Court While Seeking Peace Order

Filed under: Brad Friedman,Brett Kimberlin,General,Neal Rauhauser — Patterico @ 10:05 pm



Read it all at Aaron’s place. I think this part is worth pointing out:

Kimberlin makes it sound like Aaron came out of nowhere — just one stalker helping another. But, in fact, Kimberlin initiated contact with Aaron, not the other way around. Kimberlin had filed legal papers seeking Aaron’s true name, ostensibly so that Kimberlin could call Aaron as a witness on January 9. But when Kimberlin learned all of Aaron’s personal information, he didn’t use it to subpoena Aaron. Instead, he put that personal information — Aaron’s home address, Aaron’s work address, specific information about one of Aaron’s past lawsuits, names of schools Aaron attended, etc. — in court documents.

Then, Aaron showed up on January 9 to have all that personal information sealed. This was the very hearing where Kimberlin supposedly needed Aaron as a witness — yet Kimberlin didn’t call Aaron. What Kimberlin did do is oppose Aaron’s motion to seal all of that personal information. This would cause a reasonable onlooker to decide that Kimberlin wanted all that information public — perhaps so that it could be published on the Internet, to harass Aaron.

With all that in mind, look at the section of transcript in the screenshot. Why, this Aaron guy came out of nowhere, judge! I have no idea who he is! He just showed up at a hearing!! He’s a STALKER!!!

Just one example of Kimberlin’s use of deceptive lawfare to retaliate against people who criticize him. Read it all here.

7/1/2012

Stacy McCain on Accusing the Accusers

Filed under: Brad Friedman,Brett Kimberlin,General,Neal Rauhauser — Patterico @ 2:03 pm



The post is titled Lying Felon Brett Kimberlin Scores a Draw in Maryland Hearing, but the key part is Stacy’s description of the Rauhauser/Kimberlin strategy of accusing the accusers:

It is genuinely amazing to think that anyone could read that 1981 article by Indianapolis Star reporter Joe Gelarden — please print it out and read the whole thing — without recognizing that Kimberlin’s characteristic modus operandi has scarcely changed in the past 30 years.

By accusing others of wrongdoing, Kimberlin seeks to evade responsibility for his own wrongdoing. What I’ve called the “accuse the accusers” strategy – which is also witnessed in the actions of Kimberlin’s associate Neal Rauhauser — looks very much like obstruction of justice.

. . . .

Kimberlin uses his own civil action against Allen as evidence to discredit Allen, thus to discourage Frey (or anyone else) from relying on Allen’s work. So when we see Kimberlin attempting to employ spurious legal complaints to discredit Aaron Walker, we know that eventually Kimberlin will accuse others of criminal wrongdoing because of their relationship (real or alleged) with Walker.

Accuse the accusers — and then use your own accusations as “evidence”!

I will immodestly point out that this is not a new observation; I pointed this out on March 27, 2012:

[P]erversely, threats against a blogger not only serve as an attempt to intimidate, but are used as a tool to delegitimize the blogger. Here’s how it works: if a blogger criticizes someone in the public eye, the anti-free speech thug simply attacks the blogger in real life. If the attack fails to intimidate him, the thug now has the argument that anything the blogger posts about the thug in the future is done out of “revenge.” Even though the thug is the one who made it personal, while the blogger was simply reporting on the news, the thug’s personal attack on the blogger now enables the thug to claim to be the victim of a personal attack.

This is how the thugs use their weapons of real life attacks: not just as intimidation, but as attempts to delegitimize. They also can report you to the authorities for made-up crimes and ethical lapses, and then describe you as being “under investigation.”

It’s all part of a playbook.

I put that up fully two months before I revealed my SWATting story publicly, but I knew what I was talking about and so did many other commenters here. You can see it in operation when Rauhauser sends a missive to the FBI describing me as being under investigation for “cyberstalking” Kimberlin, it gives some faux legitimacy to the idea that I’m a bad guy. Yet the only investigation is one that Rauhauser’s associate Kimberlin started — and it was filled with nonsense and lies.

They accuse you, and cite their accusations to delegitimize you.

Stacy also has an interview with Brandon Darby which is very important, and fits right in with the “accuse the accusers” strategy. McCain asks Darby about the Rauhauser crew’s claims that Darby is the SWATter, which is of course absurd. If Darby is right, these guys are very much on the ropes:

Some parts of this network never intended to receive this much attention. Now they are realizing they are likely going to face justice and get caught. It seems they are now engaging in a preemptive defense strategy where they are making public allegations focusing on someone connected to the FBI, so that when they get busted they can claim that they were close to “uncovering the truth” and their charges are nothing more than political retribution from the FBI or an effort from the FBI to silence them for “getting too close” to the truth.

See how it works? If they think you’re about to reveal something about them, they start accusing you first so they can portray your reveal as retaliation. If they are going after someone associated with the FBI, they may be trying to set up a pre-emptive defense in case they are arrested by the FBI. “You guys are prosecuting us because we were revealing the truth about your informant Darby!” Something like that.

Viewed this way, their accusations against Darby may suggest they are worried about federal prosecution.

McCain is on fire these days, as these posts show. Bookmark him and stay glued to his site.

One Year Ago Today: July 1, 2011

Filed under: Brad Friedman,Brett Kimberlin,General,Neal Rauhauser — Patterico @ 7:27 am



I was SWATted.

I described the experience here. I’ll quote a bit of it:

At 12:35 a.m. on July 1, 2011, sheriff’s deputies pounded on my front door and rang my doorbell. They shouted for me to open the door and come out with my hands up.

When I opened the door, deputies pointed guns at me and ordered me to put my hands in the air. I had a cell phone in my hand. Fortunately, they did not mistake it for a gun.

They ordered me to turn around and put my hands behind my back. They handcuffed me. They shouted questions at me: IS THERE ANYONE ELSE IN THE HOUSE? and WHERE ARE THEY? and ARE THEY ALIVE?

I told them: Yes, my wife and my children are in the house. They’re upstairs in their bedrooms, sleeping. Of course they’re alive.

. . . .

[P]olice rushed into my home. They woke up my wife, led her downstairs and to the front porch, frisked her, and asked her where the children were. Then police ordered her to stand on the front porch with her hands against the wall while they entered my children’s bedrooms to make sure they were alive.

The call that sent deputies to my home was a hoax.

Here’s a little bit more detail about what happened at the time and in the immediate aftermath. This is all from memory, from a year ago, so minor details could be wrong.

I had been talking with Ron Brynaert when the police arrived. I had been threatened a week earlier, but I also knew that Mike Stack had been SWATted. So when people knocked on my door and rang the doorbell, I didn’t know who it was. I looked at the oven clock that is currently to my right, and it said 12:35 a.m. I leapt from my chair and moved where I couldn’t be seen from the front door. I told Brynaert that it was 12:35 a.m and people were pounding on my door and ringing the doorbell. He seemed to ignore me and kept ranting about whatever he had been ranting about. I said: “Listen to me! It’s 12:35 in the morning and someone is knocking on the door!” I heard the people at the door yelling: “Fire!” I told Brynaert I didn’t know if it was the people who had threatened me or the police. I asked him if he thought I should keep him on the phone or hang up. I don’t remember what he said, but I decided to keep him on the phone. If something awful happened, I wanted a witness.

I ended up deciding it was the police and opened the door. Before they handcuffed me, they took the cell phone from my hand. They shouted the questions at me and some police went in the house. At that point, while we were still on my front porch, I addressed the deputy who had cuffed me. Because I knew Mike Stack had been SWATted, I said words to the effect of: “Let me guess. Someone called and said I killed my wife.” The cops looked at me like I was confessing to something. I said something like this: “Look. This is a hoax. I think I know what’s going on here. I’m a blogger. I’m also a Deputy D.A., but I don’t think this is about my job. It’s about things I wrote on my blog. This same thing happened to someone else last week, in New Jersey. Someone called and said he killed his wife, and the police showed up at his house and pointed guns at him, just like this. He and I were writing about the same story. We were both writing about Congressman Weiner, the Congressman who sent the picture of his underwear. We were both writing about that. We both got threatened by email. Check my phone. I talked to a New Jersey detective about it. His name is Jason Larson. His name and number are on my phone. I know this all sounds crazy, but that’s what’s going on.”

I continued talking to the cop about it as he walked me down the street to the patrol car. I told him that I had warned my wife that this might happen. I had also told a neighbor about it. I said: “The neighbor I told lives in that house right there. You can ask him about it. I told him this might happen. He asked if I had talked to you guys, and I didn’t, because I didn’t want to sound paranoid. I can’t believe this is actually happening to me too.”

As we walked down the street, there was a helicopter overhead, shining down a spotlight on the street. I was put in the back of the patrol car. I can’t remember if I was still cuffed any more. I think I was. It was quiet. I sat there for a few minutes.

They came back, opened up the patrol car, and uncuffed me. They had talked to my wife, who had told them the same thing. They knew now that it was a hoax. They asked me to tell them more about it. I was addressing about 4-5 sheriff’s deputies on the sidewalk by the patrol car. I told them about Anthony Weiner, and the threatening email I had gotten, and the guy in New Jersey.

They asked me if I had any idea who had done this. I told them I didn’t know for sure, but they might want to look into a guy named Neal Rauhauser. I had been talking with Brynaert about him on the phone, and had just been blogging about him when the SWATting happened.

They gave me back my phone. I think Ron Brynaert was still on the line. My memory of some details is spotty as it was a stressful situation. Either on the phone or in a DM or both, I can’t remember for sure, I told him not to tell anyone what had happened. I know at some point he said he had already told Lee Stranahan. More about that later.

I asked the deputies if we could talk in the house. We came inside and sat at the kitchen table where I am now. The house was a wreck. I told them I was in trial; we were “dark” (the trial court was not in session) the next day, but I had been very busy and had not had time to clean up. I felt embarrassed having all these deputies in my home when it was so dirty. I spent a few minutes telling them what I knew and asking what would happen next. Would a detective be assigned? Yes, he would. He should call me. They would treat it as a false report of a crime.

The deputies were sympathetic. By now they knew that both my wife and I are Deputy D.A.’s. The guy who had cuffed me and frisked me was very polite. I said I thought I recognized him, and he said the same about me. He said he had been a bailiff in Compton at times, and we agreed that was probably where I had seen him. The officers handed me a pamphlet with my “rights” as a victim and the URN (the report number for the report).

The deputies left. I asked my wife about her experience, and she told me what had happened from her perspective. I was concerned about the kids. She didn’t think the kids had been awakened more than slightly.

I called Ron Brynaert. He told me he had told Lee Stranahan what had happened. I can’t remember if he was confirming something he had said before, or telling me for the first time. I wanted to make sure that this did not become an Internet story immediately, as I worried it would impede an investigation. Although it was late, I called Lee and woke him up. I said I was sorry to wake him in the middle of the night, but this was important. I asked if he had talked to Brynaert. He said he had not. I asked if Brynaert had emailed him or gotten in touch with him in any way. He said no. I said that if he got any communications from Brynaert, to keep the subject matter to himself.

I called Brynaert back. I said Lee said he had not heard from Brynaert. Brynaert said he had sent Lee a DM. I said that Lee said he had not heard from Brynaert in any way. Brynaert said he had DM’d Lee. I said, hold on, and called Lee again.

I asked Lee to check his DM’s. He said he had no DM’s from Brynaert.

I called Brynaert back. I told him Lee said he had no DM’s. Brynaert said he had sent Lee a DM. I said, that makes no sense. I asked him to check. He says he didn’t get anything. Brynaert repeated that he had sent Lee a DM. Lee should have gotten it. I said this was really weird.

Christi said she was going back to bed. I said that I was worried I was not the only SWATting victim that night. On June 25, 2011, Alicia Pain had exchanged numerous emails with me, giving me some idiotic story about having material on Anthony Weiner. At one point she had asked me questions about where I lived, and said: “Anyway if I wanted to send you the material we talked about, where would I send it?” She included four street addresses (no city names, just number and street), one of which was mine. Of course I didn’t tell her anything about where I lived.

I remembered that Stack had told me the police had been given the wrong address by the guy who SWATted him. New Jersey police had gone to the wrong address, he had told me, and pulled an older couple out of a house where Stack used to live.

I thought: I wonder if they are making hoax calls about all four of those addresses they had for me.

By now it had to be between 1:30 and 2 a.m., but I felt an obligation to follow up on the other addresses. I called the dispatcher at the Lomita Sheriff’s station. I told him that he probably was aware that there had just been a hoax call of a shooting at my address. I explained that I was worried that similar events might be occurring at three other addresses in Southern California. I gave him the addresses and asked if he would be willing to call the other police departments to warn them. He was very friendly and said he would.

As I said, Alicia Pain had given only street names and numbers for the four addresses. I Googled all four of them and found they all belonged to various people named Patrick Frey in Southern California. I determined the city for each of them. I can’t remember whether I did that before I called the Lomita dispatcher or after.

I do know that I started to worry that the Lomita dispatcher was going to be too busy to contact the other police departments, so I started doing it myself. I called all three of the other departments. Two of them had already received calls from the dispatcher at the Sheriff’s station in Lomita, and knew what I was talking about. They said no hoax calls had occurred in their cities that night. (I had never even heard the term SWATting and did not use it with these police departments.)

The third police station had not yet heard from my Lomita dispatcher. It was an awkward conversation, occurring at probably 2:30 or 3 in the morning, that started out something like this: “OK, this is going to sound really weird, but there’s a reason I’m calling you . . .” However bizarre the situation I described sounded, I know I sounded rational and level-headed, and after a couple of minutes they understood what I was saying and took down the information.

I tried going to bed but had a hard time sleeping.

Early in the morning Lee called and asked what was going on. I really didn’t want the word to get out, but I realized that he was a potential victim, so I told him. After I woke up, I called Ace of Spades, who had also been threatened by Alicia Pain by email, and told him what had happened to me.

Ace wanted me to write about it right away. I said I didn’t want to jeopardize law enforcement investigations. He said I would be “scooped” if I didn’t break the story on my blog. Which is pretty funny if you think about it, since Big Media never reported any of this until I blogged about it on May 25, 2012.

That morning I got in touch with a friend who I knew had contacts in the FBI. I asked him to put me in touch with them. One of his friends works in Long Beach, and I talked to that agent, who invited me down to the Long Beach office to make a report. He worked in a violent crimes unit, but said he would take an initial report and pass it along to the cyber crimes people.

Later that day I met with him and gave him my story.

On July 1, 2011, Ron Brynaert sent me 7 emails. Not one referred to the SWATting that had occurred the night before. All were bizarre, impossible to understand emails about Neal Rauhauser, and sock puppets he had spoken to, and Anthony Weiner, and starchild111, and Jennifer George, and Jennifer George’s film professor. One said:

[T]he entire M.O. of these sick fucks every one of them is to DIVERT!!!!!! So they pretend to go after lee stranahan…..when that’s not their real target.

It’s you. They want to damage your career…

Another said:

so with that nightmare scenario…i would guess that neal and his crew are writing everyone at your work….telling them what’s with this crazy guy throwing fake docs on the site…i can prove they’re fake….

anyway…im imagining your offices aint gonna fall for that deception….so hopefully if they do that we just get more evidence….anyone sending letters to complain you is almost definnitely a neal r dude or been duped by him….

Months later, Ron Brynaert contacted my workplace to complain about me, to damage my career. But that’s getting ahead of the story . . .

6/28/2012

Protective Order Muzzles Blogger

Filed under: Brad Friedman,Brett Kimberlin,General,Neal Rauhauser — Patterico @ 11:16 pm



I just got interested in the muzzling of a blogger by a judge who cares little about the First Amendment. I saw the story on Radley Balko’s site, noticed that the judge had actually ordered the blogger to take down his posts (!), and had just started to do some independent research — pulling Google Cache shots of the deleted posts (here, here, here, and here) — when I saw Popehat already had the whole thing covered.

In a post published a few minutes ago.

This, in some ways, is worse than the egregious order Brett Kimberlin got against Aaron Walker. Judge Sanabria-Vega has not merely prohibited someone from speaking about a criminal proceeding — she’s ordered that person to delete what he’s previously written, all without a hearing. Moreover, the theories on which Nilan sought an order — and on which Judge Sanbria-Vega apparently granted it — appear plainly unconstitutional. Prior restraint on otherwise protected speech (that is, preventing Valenti from writing about Nilan at all) is only permissible in very rare cases, and orders requiring the removal of defamatory material generally come only after a full trial on the merits. Moreover, Valenti tells me that Nilan has never informed him of what specific facts he has printed are false, and nothing in the press coverage of this order or her statement identifies any such specific facts. Remember my mantra — vagueness in legal threats is the hallmark of censorious thuggery.

As to threats, Nilan’s theory appears to be similar to that of convicted domestic terrorist Brett Kimberlin — that if a blogger strongly criticizes someone, that blogger is legally responsible for reader reactions, and may be prohibited from blogging further if readers react with bad behavior like threats. As the appellate court has found in Kimberlin, that’s just not the law — only incitement that is calculated to cause, and likely to cause, imminent lawless action may be prohibited or punished. That’s a good thing. Otherwise, all the nuts of the internet have a heckler’s veto over Dan Valenti’s speech, and your speech, and mine. If we’re responsible for bad people responding to critical (as opposed to genuinely inciting) speech, then the more contemptible somebody’s behavior, the more dangerous it would be to write about them. Moreover, in the digital age, such an unprincipled legal rule is ripe for fraud — it’s trivially easy for someone seeking a protective order to lie about receiving threats, and nearly as easy to send false-flag threats to create a justification for censorship.

Dan Valenti’s case, like Aaron Walker’s, highlights how protective orders can pose a grave risk to First Amendment rights if judges issue them without applying scrutiny premised on fundamental First Amendment principles. The more that judges approve applications like Brett Kimberlin’s and Meredith Nilan’s, the more that people will be emboldened to abuse the protective order system to silence criticism. If Dan Valenti has written false facts about Meredith Nilan, she can sue for libel, and carry the appropriate burden dictated by the First Amendment. If she’s been subjected to threats, she can seek remedy against the actual culprits. But there’s no excuse for judges to use their coercive power to protect her from commentary because of how unidentified strangers on the internet might react.

I do have a quibble with the first sentence from that block quote. Of course, Aaron’s situation is worse in many ways, because a) he was arrested, b) he was fired, c) he was SWATted, and d) he remains threatened by a violent psychopath. So he’s got that going for him. Which is nice.

But at least he never was ordered to take down any blog posts.

Anyway, that quibble aside, Ken has done a great job laying out the facts and why it all matters.

That’ll allow me to go to bed a lot sooner. Thanks, Ken!

6/27/2012

Brett Kimberlin Threatens Even More Unconstitutional Peace Orders Against Aaron Walker

Filed under: Brad Friedman,Brett Kimberlin,General,Neal Rauhauser — Patterico @ 7:34 am



Kimberlin, in a letter to Aaron Walker’s attorney yesterday:

Again, I want to be left alone by your client. That is my demand as required by Galloway and the criminal harassment statute. His false narrative that I framed him is defamatory and inciting extremists to threaten me. He is responsible for their conduct. I will not hesitate to seek additional peace orders or criminal harassment charges if he does not leave me alone.

The trouble is, Brett Kimberlin defines “leave me alone” as “don’t blog about the lawfare I have waged on you.” He wants the right to engage in dishonest and abusive litigation, but he demands more: the right to do it without criticism. As you can see from his response to Aaron’s filing for an emergency stay, Kimberlin continues to assert that he has the right to an email inbox free from Google Alerts relating to posts written by Aaron about Kimberlin:

Mr. Walker, contrary to what he says in his motion, did, as Judge Vaughey found, contact Petitioner directly in order to harass him. In his blog posts andon his Twitter page, he addressed Petitioner directly. He knew that his posts and tweets would end up in Petitioner’s email box, and taunted Petitioner to turn off “his Google alerts.” This is akin to telling someone to shut off their phone or stop their mail service if they did not want to receive harassing calls or mail.

Um, no, it’s not. If you set up a service where your phone rings every time someone talks about you in public, I am not “phoning” you if I talk about you in public. If you set up a service where you receive a piece of snail mail every time someone talks about you in public, I am not “mailing” you if I talk about you in public. Having a Google alert for your name is YOUR choice. It cannot be used as a sword to force people to stop talking about you — and it is not “taunting” for Aaron to say: if you don’t want your email inbox filled with notifications about Aaron’s posts, turn your Google alerts off.

And Aaron Walker is not responsible for the reaction of other people to his peaceful speech, in which he repeatedly disclaims any intent to have people harass Kimberlin in any way whatsoever. (As do I.)

The thing is, Kimberlin has been told all of this before — and he still goes back and gets peace orders. And the judges in the Maryland court system give them to him. These judges feel bound by their own rules instead of the rules set by the Supreme Court, as Judge Vaughey famously made clear.

So when Kimberlin makes a threat like this, it is not idle.

He is not going to stop, until someone (morally and legally) forces him to stop.

Brett Kimberlin Associate “Gaped Crusader” — And the Evidence Connecting Him to Neal Rauhauser

Filed under: Brad Friedman,Brett Kimberlin,General,Neal Rauhauser — Patterico @ 12:00 am



Facts don’t matter, that’s the perception of the situation, and the world is going to act on that basis.” — The “Gaped Crusader,” November 26, 2011.

In December 2011, an anonymous Brett Kimberlin supporter calling himself the “Gaped Crusader” boasted of the harassment of five people. Two of them, Mike Stack and myself, were SWATting victims in late June and early July 2011:

The targets include Brett Kimberlin critics and SWATting victims.

The methods include “outing” people’s identities; posting their home addresses; and creating (phony) civil and criminal liability. The Gaped Crusader attributes each atrocity to Neal Rauhauser or his associate Brett Kimberlin (who runs the Occupy for Accountability blog that published pictures of my house).

The Gaped Crusader thought he was making these observations anonymously. But he made mistakes, many of which are listed in this post — which reveals extensive evidence connecting the Gaped Crusader to Brett Kimberlin associate Neal Rauhauser.

The evidence includes (among other things) common topics of obsession; common unique catch phrases; admission by both of a particular trip at a particular time; characteristic method of formatting emails; and my personal favorite: a shared IP address.

IP ADDRESS

Normally I’d show you all the other similarities before I showed you the IP evidence, but the IP evidence discussion really helps reveal this guy’s true nature, right out of the gate — because it shows the “Gaped Crusader” talking about my wife.

Here are three comments the “Gaped Crusader” left on my site:

Note the middle comment, linking a post about my wife, and promising it is the first of many. Here is the post titled “Mrs. Patterico”:

The link to “Christi Frey” goes to a press release at the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s web site, detailing a case that was handled by my wife. This link shows that the “Gaped Crusader” had investigated my wife.

The words “nice house” link to our address. That shows that the “Gaped Crusader” had investigated our home address.

Take a look at that IP address that this creep used to leave comments on my blog: 67.221.255.15.

Neal Rauhauser used that IP address to leave a comment at the “Qritiq” blog. The “Qritiq” blog is pro-Rauhauser and pro-Kimberlin, and is filled with lies, defamation, and anti-Patterico sock puppets. Yesterday she published a post advising people about where they could complain about me to my office. Qritiq has called Rauhauser her “hero.” Rauhauser probably felt perfectly safe posting there.

What he didn’t realize is that the proprietor had given posting privileges to SWATting victim Mike Stack. And, because Stack had administrative privileges over his own posts, comments left on his posts were emailed to Stack — including IP addresses.

Whoops! Looks like you messed up, Neal!

This is a screenshot of an email that Stack forwarded to me in December 2011, with the information on Neal’s IP address:

Let’s take a closer look at that IP address:

Let’s look at those together:

I took the IP — 67.221.255.15 — and plugged it into my comment software . . . and found comments from the Gaped Crusader.

As Tyler Durden might say: I am Patterico’s complete lack of surprise.

Because those of us who had watched Neal for months already strongly suspected that the Gaped Crusader was Neal Rauhauser. Because there is so much other evidence tying Rauhauser to the vile Gaped Crusader account.

NEAL RAUHAUSER’S TOPICS OF OBSESSION

Let’s look at that “Mrs. Patterico” post above. See how the Gaped Crusader said that Steve Cooley’s 2010 political opponent should prosecute me for various unnamed alleged crimes? Steve Cooley’s 2010 opponent was Kamala Harris, the Attorney General of California. And guess who also urged people to ask Kamala Harris to investigate me? If you guessed Neal Rauhauser, you’re paying attention!

On July 12, 2011, Rauhauser encouraged Daily Kos readers to file complaints against me with California Attorney General Kamala Harris.

The “California Supreme Court Complaint” in question is Brett Kimberlin’s frivolous State Bar Complaint against me — a complaint which (among other things) accused me of discriminating against the disabled by writing about Kimberlin’s status as a felon, which he claims is a “disability.” I am told Rauhauser’s associate Kimberlin filed frivolous criminal charges against me with Kamala Harris.

Odd how the Gaped Crusader (and Kimberlin) share Rauhauser’s belief that I should be prosecuted by Kamala Harris.

Rauhauser also shared the Gaped Crusader’s creepy focus on my wife. Three days after I was swatted, Rauhauser wrote a post titled “Patterico’s Penalization” that made bizarre accusations about me, claiming I “worked with a cyber-stalker named Seth L. Allen.” In that post, Rauhauser publicized Kimberlin’s State Bar complaint against me — and asked readers to get a picture of my wife. Rauhauser also suggested that a private detective stake out Seth Allen’s apartment:

But Rauhauser and the Gaped Crusader were obsessed with more than just my wife, or getting Kamala Harris to prosecute me. Let’s focus on the screenshot that opened up this post, and look at the Gaped Crusader’s targets in that disturbing post:

The names there are Mike Stack, Seth Allen, me, Aaron Walker/Worthing, and Sean Tompkins (who I believe is an online acquaintance of Stack’s). It turns out Neal Rauhauser is obsessed with the very same people.

Robert Stacy McCain and I have both previously posted about a bizarre, paranoid rant that Neal Rauhauser sent to law enforcement officials, making crazy allegations about an “ISR cell” (ISR stands for “Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance”) supposedly headed by Andrew Breitbart. Here (.pdf) Rauhauser explains the contents of the nutty CD that he sent to law enforcement:

Look at the objects of Rauhauser’s obsession. You’ll recognize the same names from the Gaped Crusader screenshot: Mike Stack, Seth Allen, Patrick Frey (me), Aaron Walker aka Aaron Worthing, and Sean Tompkins.

Rauhauser hates Mike Stack so much, he sent Stack a cease and desist letter — addressed, as it happens, to 30 Mallard Court, Three Bridges, New Jersey.



Above: two screenshots from the beginning and end of a letter from Neal Rauhauser to Mike Stack

That is not Mike Stack’s address. But it is the address that Mike Stack’s SWATter gave New Jersey police in Stack’s June 23, 2011 SWATting call.

Let’s look at some of the other names on Rauhauser’s Enemies List — people he hates enough to mention in a CD sent to law enforcement attempting to implicate them in phony crimes. As you can see, those names include (among others) HB Gary (which was headed by Aaron Barr); Rauhauser’s Twittergate enemy Michelle Lessick aka ZAPEM; and a guy named Tom Ryan.

Was the Gaped Crusader obsessed with any of these other enemies of Neal Rauhauser’s? If you guessed “yes,” that means you’re really getting the hang of this! Here is a screenshot with complaints about Stack, me, Sean Tompkins, HB Gary and Aaron Barr, Tom Ryan, and Aaron Worthing:

Here’s another post that falsely claims that Aaron Barr and Tom Ryan “coordinate” with me:

For the record, I have never met, spoken with, or corresponded with Aaron Barr or Tom Ryan in my life.

As for ZAPEM/Lessick, the Gaped Crusader mentioned her in a post that also mentioned Seth Allen, Stack, me, Kamala Harris, and Steve Cooley:

That post, dated December 16, starts out mentioning a John Dean column about cyberbullies:

Which is interesting, since Neal Rauhauser mentioned the very same article on the same day, in a comment at the Qritiq blog:

Rauhauser later said he was so taken with the article that he made notes on it.

It’s also important to note that, like the Gaped Crusader, Rauhauser is obsessed with Weinergate. This is important, because SWATting victim Mike Stack was never much of a Brett Kimberlin critic, but he was a high-profile participant in the monitoring of Anthony Weiner’s Twitter account, and frequently noted Weiner’s penchant for following young girls with that account. Last summer, I also had a significant role in various stories having to do with Weiner’s communications with young women. Indeed, before I was SWATted, I was threatened by email, and the threat ostensibly had to do with my publication of Weiner’s communications with Gennette Cordova. That email was sent to me (and Ace of Spades) the same night Mike Stack was SWATted: June 23, 2011.

And Neal Rauhauser, like the Gaped Crusader, is a “Weiner Truther” who has insinuated that I was behind a plot to bring down Anthony Weiner. Just look again at the screenshot above asking people to have Kamala Harris investigate me for my alleged “involvement in the stalking of Congressman Weiner.”

BOTH CLAIMED I CUT A DEAL FOR PHONY IDS IN WEINERGATE

Indeed, the Gaped Crusader and Rauhauser don’t just share a generalized theory that I was somehow behind a set-up of Anthony Weiner. They both have a specific theory about what I did — and the theory is the same for both of them.

At the Daily Kos, Rauhauser speculated that I arranged for the fake driver’s license used by the alleged mother of Nikki Reid:

The fake driver’s license employed by Pamela Reid, the fake mom of the fake teenage girl Nikki aka @starchild111, was from California. Presumably a Deputy D.A. from that area, where immigration problems are common, would know and perhaps be engaged in plea bargains with people who can manufacture documents.

Similarly, the Gaped Crusader speculated:

Would a Los Angeles county prosecutor have seen a driver’s license forging case or two? Probably. Could they cut some nice deal for a third time offender, say getting a license and a woman to voice Patricia Reid so they could set up Tommy Christoper to take the fall for the fake teen girl entrapment effort? Yeah, that sounds doable, doesn’t it?

MORE OBSESSION WITH WEINER AND KIMBERLIN CRITICS

And again, in a post titled “Straight Outta Compton,” the Gaped Crusader once again talked about Kamala Harris, Steve Cooley, Aaron Worthing, me, Seth Allen . . . and Anthony Weiner. See here, here, and here:

It isn’t hard to imagine former Congressman Anthony Weiner sitting at home with his lovely wife Huma Abedin, not saying anything, but with a grim little smile on his face as he watches all this unfold.

Similarly, in a post called “Free Speech and Accountability” we see this:

The Gaped Crusader also mentioned the “Threat Management Unit” — another name for the District Attorney’s “Stalking and Threat Assessment Team,” or STAT. This came up in a post again mentioning Steve Cooley:

Note again the constant accusations that I was involved in “stalking” and “smearing” Brett Kimberlin (a partner in Velvet Revolution) and Anthony Weiner. But right now I am interested in the mention of our stalking unit. Because Brett Kimberlin filed a complaint against me with our stalking unit. And that unit was a particular obsession of Neal Rauhauser’s.

Guess who else mentioned the same team? Alicia Pain, the person who threatened me before I was SWATted:

Well what can I say? If you really want to bring me to justice, I encourage you to do so. Here is the best number to call: Stalking and Threat Assessment Team (STAT)
Inside line: X[redacted] or (213) 974-[redacted].

A comment by “OccupyOngsHat” at the Qritiq blog encouraged Qritiq to report me to the same anti-stalking unit. The commenter claimed that this would result in “lulzy lulz”:

Oddly enough, the comment was left using the same IP used by the Gaped Crusader and Neal Rauhauser: 67.221.255.15:

CHARACTERISTIC PHRASES

The Gaped Crusader, like Rauhauser himself, loves to speak in the idiom of 4chan-style hackers. Everything is “epic” and “lulzy” and there are a billion references to “lulzcows” and Encyclopedia Dramatica and the like.

Even in this blizzard of inanity, a couple of comparisons stand out for me.

“THE BUTTHURT IS FLOWING THICK AND FAST”

In one post, the Gaped Crusader said the “butthurt is flowing thick and fast”:

That’s not a real common phrase. Yet, in a post as Stranded Wind at Daily Kos, Rauhauser said “the butthurt is flowing thick and fast”:

Note who is named as having “paid dearly” for their role as “Weinergate perps”: me and Mike Stack.

The two SWATting victims from 2011.

I should note here that a) Stranded Wind is a well-known alias for Rauhauser, and b) this Stranded Wind post was published on July 27, 2011 — long before my SWATting was made public. (I mentioned it publicly weeks ago, and even Ron Brynaert did not mention it in public until August 2011.)

By the way, Rauhauser could not avoid talking like a teenaged hacker even in the materials he sent to law enforcement. In the “ReadMe” text document included to explain the contents of the disk, Rauhauser wrote things like this:

Swatting call – purportedly someone swatting Mike Stack. Google this, lots of butthurt flowing, claims he was cuffed at gun point?

You can just picture an FBI agent interviewing Neal: tell me more about the “epic lulz” and the “butthurt,” Mr. Rauhauser.

IRON TROLL/MENTION OF 4CHAN, SOMETHING AWFUL, AND ENCLOPEDIA DRAMATICA — IN THAT ORDER

In Rauhauser’s complaint to law enforcement about alleged harassment by Mike Stack, he mentions a harassment contest called “Iron Troll”:

This account, with some sixty thousand followers, is a major news outlet for Anonymous. It should be noted that the Anonymous community is currently running “Iron Troll” – a contest involving computer, phone, and real life pranks.

The Gaped Crusader also mentioned “Iron Troll” in a post titled “Getting Kamala Harris After Porn Mooks”:

That alone isn’t much — but it gets more interesting.

Take a look at Gaped Crusader’s mention of 4chan, Something Awful, and Encyclopedia Dramatica, in that order — and then reflect on an email recently published at The Trenches that Rauhauser wrote to lefty Twitter activist Shoq:

I have been sorely tempted to point him out to various actors – a guy like this, he could really produce some high quality entertainment for 4chan, Something Awful, Encyclopedia Dramatica, etc.

Weird, huh? Even weirder is that Rauhauser listed these three entities in exactly this order as Stranded Wind, back in June 2011:

Anonymous doesn’t have a tree structure, it’s a loose coalition of warring tribes. Each node has its own culture and methods.

Some of them are from 4chan, some from Something Awful, some from Encyclopedia Dramatica, and a few dozen other sites that are less well known.

Hmmmm.

TALKING ABOUT MY “DISCHARGE”

4chan hackers don’t commonly use the term “discharge” to refer to someone being fired. But both the Gaped Crusader and Rauhauser fantasized about the “discharge” of yours truly.

In a July 4, 2011 entry titled “Patterico’s Penalization” (published 3 days after my SWATting), Rauhauser wrote:

Discharge, disbarment, and public ridicule ought to be Frey’s lot in life if what appears to be going on, based on this small analysis, is truly the explanation for the events surrounding Weinergate.

Similarly, in late November 2011, the Gaped Crusader was very excited about the possibility of “discharge” and (he believed) impending criminal charges for me:

Can discharge and criminal charges be imminent for Los Angeles assclown D.A. John Patrick Frey?

Hmmmmmmmmmm.

CALLING ME “PADDY”

Neal, writing as Stranded Wind, enjoyed calling me “Paddy” as he threatened me:


Above: Writing at Daily Kos, Rauhauser suggests I should be harassed online.

Oddly enough, so did the Gaped Crusader, in a post talking about subpoenaing my boss Steve Cooley to ask him questions about my blogging:

Or this post, which called me the “capodecina of the Breitbart crime family” — and once again called me “Paddy”:

Incidentally, the term “lulzcow,” used by Rauhauser in that creepily threatening post from the Daily Kos in July 2011, was also used by the Gaped Crusader:

There’s just one “tell” after another, isn’t there?

USE OF ROMANIAN

On November 21, 2011, OccupyOngsHat rendered the Anonymous slogan in Romanian:

The Gaped Crusader blog has Romanian all over it:

Neal at Occupy the House talked in Romanian:

Just two hours before he surrendered that account to other Occupiers:

I could go on and on here, but I think you get the point. Rauhauser and Gaped Crusader both used the “x noun is x” trope. Gaped Crusader had a post titled “Butthurt Moderator is Butthurt,”, while Neal, tweeting as “Occupy the House,” would tweet things like “Ineffective troll is ineffective.” Both talked about “Anonymiss” — a group of women hackers Rauhauser has claimed to lead. They both are fans of the Qritiq blog. Both talk about “porn mooks” and “e-lawyers” and PornWikiLeaks and Donny Long . . . And so on and so on and so on.

VISIT TO ROCKAWAY BEACH

In a December 8, 2011 comment at the Kid Kenoma blog (see here and here) Rauhauser talked about visiting Rockaway Beach:

Similarly, the Gaped Crusader talked about making a visit to Far Rockaway and Broad Channel — which, along with Rockaway Beach, are areas on the Rockaway Peninsula of Queens.



I took the screenshots of the Gaped Crusader post about his visit to Far Rockaway on November 26, 2011 — almost two weeks before Rauhauser spoke at Kid Kenoma about his visit to Rockaway Beach.

Anthony Weiner represented the Rockaway Beach area.

CHARACTERISTICALLY INDENTED EMAILS

I already posted about this, but I’d hate to leave it out of this more comprehensive post. Here is a typical Rauhauser email, in which Neal demonstrates his penchant for lawfare. The background: on a publicly available Flickr account, Neal Rauhauser posted multiple shots of shoes, feet, more shoes, more feet, shoes on cats, feet, and shoes. (Sample here.) This prompted Mandy Nagy to joke on Twitter about Neal having a foot fetish, which in turn prompted this email, in which Neal threatened to sue Mandy for claiming he had a sex life of any kind at all:

Don’t insinuate that he has a sex life or he’ll SUE!!!!

Anyway, here is an email from the Gaped Crusader. Note the similar indenting style:

As I indicated previously, I owe a debt to Brooks Bayne for catching that subtlety.

Perhaps an even more important email is this one, which provides the quote that began this post. In it, the Gaped Crusader responds to Mandy Nagy’s claim that the facts show she has done nothing wrong. The bottom, indented paragraph is the Gaped Crusader:

That line is important: “Facts don’t matter, that’s the perception of the situation, and the world is going to act on that basis.” That’s Neal Rauhauser’s view of the world, as expressed by the Gaped Crusader.

CONCLUSION? NO, THIS IS JUST THE BEGINNING

This post is foundational for much of what comes in the future. In future posts I will introduce to you other sock puppet accounts with similar obsessions, writing styles, and IPs, such as the “LulzShack” account that seemed to know about my SWATting months before it was made public. I will show you how certain “moby” trolls at my site leave racist and sexist comments, with IPs from similar blocks as the Gaped Crusader, Alicia Pain, and LulzShack. There will be further evidence in these posts relating to the SWATtings of myself and Mike Stack.

Neal Rauhauser spent a solid year lying about me. Now the time has come for me to tell the truth about him.

Stay tuned.

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