Patterico's Pontifications

6/20/2012

How Ron Brynaert Lured Me Onto the Phone The Night I Was SWATted

Filed under: General,Ron Brynaert — Patterico @ 9:13 pm



As regular readers will remember, during Weinergate, a Boston woman named Jennifer George supposedly filed a report with police claiming that she had been threatened by Lee Stranahan.

That seemed very improbable. Lee concluded at the time that “Jennifer George” must be lying about him.

In a post that generated 3765 comments, I speculated on another possibility: that perhaps Jennifer George really was threatened, but that the threatener had merely pretended to be Stranahan.

Interestingly, Ron Brynaert tweeted something to the same effect on the night of June 30, 2011:

Brynaert also mentioned on the phone that there was a suspicious person with a British accent that I needed to know about. I was very interested in this because I had knew that the caller from Mike Stack’s June 23, 2011 SWATting had been (incorrectly) described by the police as having a British accent.

It is little wonder that I wanted to speak with Ron Brynaert on the phone on the night of June 30, 2011.

I tried to get information from Brynaert about the Stranahan report, and about the man with the British accent. But Brynaert ranted and raved and shouted, and it was almost impossible to get him to answer any questions. (Anyone who has ever spoken with Brynaert on the phone has likely had a similar experience.)

And he was still on the phone with me in the early morning hours of July 1, 2011, when police showed up at my door.

As a reminder, here is a 12-second clip combining the end of my SWATting call with a few seconds from an interview with Ron Brynaert:

UPDATE: Why am I talking about this? I explain in this comment.

6/12/2012

More Evidence Emerges of Brett Kimberlin’s Involvement in Nadia Naffe Litigation Against Me

Nadia Naffe has filed a civil claim against me and my boss Steve Cooley. This claim gains special relevance today — because of the identity of Nadia Naffe’s lawyer, together with an email that just emerged this evening.

Yesterday evening, Brooks Bayne broke news of a May 24 email from Brett Kimberlin associate Neal Rauhauser to a lawyer named Jay Leiderman. Here’s the email:

If this email is genuine, it cements the evidence of: 1) a friendly relationship between Kimberlin associate Neal Rauhauser and attorney Jay Leiderman, and 2) efforts by Rauhauser to turn a person thought to be an enemy of mine against me, by referring that person to Leiderman.

As Stacy McCain says:

I’m not a lawyer, but what Rauhauser appears to be doing in this May 28 e-mail — besides lying about me — is attempting to inveigle California attorney Jay Leiderman into representing Mike Stack in a nuisance lawsuit against Patrick “Patterico” Frey.

There is a reason I find this particularly interesting.

Namely: in an amazing coincidence, Jay Leiderman happens to be Nadia Naffe’s attorney. In her post about how she desires to sue me and my wife, she posted a link to a document showing service of a civil claim against me and my boss Steve Cooley. That document indicates that her lawyer is Leiderman:

There are many more connections between Naffe and Kimberlin / Kimberlin associates. Perhaps in a future post I’ll have time to lay them all out.

But for now, this one is pretty interesting, eh?

P.S. Here is one more I have time for.

On May 26, 2012, Nadia Naffe also threatened to file a State Bar complaint against me. If she follows through with her threat, she will join Brett Kimberlin in sharing the honor of filing a State Bar Complaint against Patrick Frey:

Naffe also threatened to file a State Bar complaint against my wife, a Democrat who cancels out my vote in every election. She joined Ron Brynaert, Kimberlin associate Neal Rauhauser, and anonymous Brett Kimberlin supporters OccupyRebellion, BreitbartUnmask, LulzShack, and Gaped Crusader (and probably others I am forgetting) in making creepy comments about my wife:

6/7/2012

U.S. Senator Requests Investigation of SWATtings; ABC Covers SWATting Story; Ali Akbar Is Further Terrorized

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



Some positive developments occurred yesterday for several of us who have suffered retaliation in our personal lives for our political views.

Yesterday Saxby Chambliss, U.S. Senator for Georgia, wrote Eric Holder to request a federal investigation of politically motivated SWATtings:

Dear Attorney General Holder:

I am writing with concern regarding recent reports that several members of the community of online political commentators have been targeted with harassing and frightening actions. Any potentially criminal action that incites fear, seeks to silence a dissenting opinion, and collaterally wastes the resources of law enforcement should be given close scrutiny at all levels.

According to these individuals’ reports, these dangerous hoaxes, also known as “SWAT-ting,” have a perpetrator contacting a local police department to report some type of violent incident at the home of the target. It is believed that these callers utilize some of the less traditional telecommunications methods, including voice over IP (VOIP) to make the call appear as though it is coming from the target residence and to better hide the true identity of the caller.

In response, a dispatcher then sends a large number of understandably anxious police units, in a heightened state of readiness, to the home of the still unsuspecting target. The first that the target or their unsuspecting family learns of this false report to law enforcement is when they are shocked to see an abnormal police presence descending on their residence.

The use of SWAT-ting as a harassment tool is apparently not new, but its use as a tool for targeting political speech appears to be a more recent development. During the last year, some of the more widely reported cases of SWAT-ting have taken place against blog operators across the country, including in Georgia. The emerging pattern is both disturbing and dangerous.

While these incidences are currently small in number, and have fortunately not led to any accidental physical harm, they are extremely concerning. The perpetrators appear to be targeting individuals who are vigorously exercising their First Amendment rights to political speech. As you know, these reported efforts to intimidate those who choose to enter the political forum and express their opinions are in conflict with the founding principles of our nation.

Regardless of any potential political differences that may exist, threats and intimidation have no place in our national political discourse. Those who choose to enter into that political discourse should not have to worry about potential threats to their or their family’s safety.

While I am certain that local law enforcement is reviewing each of these instances, I am asking you to please look into each of these cases as well to determine if any federal laws may have been violated. Future targets of SWAT-ting, whether engaged in political speech or not, may not be so fortunate as to escape physical harm.

In a story linked by Drudge, ABC News covered the story and reported further details about the SWATtings. One detail that I had known but had not made public was that Erickson’s SWATting was more serious than was previously realized. Erickson had previously reported, based on statements from the patrol officers, that the caller said there had been an “accidental” shooting. But based on the call, it is now known that the caller reported that he had killed his wife:

Late last month, Erick Erickson, the editor of the conservative site RedState.com, was the victim of the same type of targeting. He had written about Frey’s case just a few days before.

Erickson sat at home in Macon, Georgia with his family while his children played outside over Memorial Day weekend when two sheriff’s deputies drove to the house after receiving a phone call about Erickson allegedly shooting his wife.

“My first thought was, ‘What have the kids done?'” Erickson said after seeing the police car outside his home. “The police officer approached me in the driveway and said it was a call about an accidental shooting. According to the 911 call, the person claimed I had killed my wife.”

If this isn’t the same SWATter from the previous incidents, I’ll eat my hat. And I like my hat.

The absolute best part of the ABC piece? I am now a “prominent blogger”!

ABC News spoke with two prominent conservative bloggers who were victims of SWAT-ting, a hoax tactic used by some hackers to infiltrate a victim’s phone system, often through voice over IP (VOIP) technology to make calls appear as if they are coming from a residence. The perpetrators call police to report a violent crime at that home to which the police respond, sometimes with SWAT teams.

Just after midnight on July 1, 2011, Patrick Frey, a deputy District Attorney in Los Angeles and a conservative blogger who writes under the name “Patterico,” heard a pounding at his door as sheriff’s deputies arrived to investigate a call from Frey’s home about a man who claimed he had killed his wife. But no one in Frey’s home had been killed, and no one had made a phone call to the police.

“It’s a phone call that could have gotten me killed,” Frey wrote on his blog about the incident.

Meanwhile, the thugs supporting Brett Kimberlin have gone after Ali Akbar, the head of the National Bloggers’ Club legal defense fund for those harassed by Brett Kimberlin. The Breitbart Unmasked site published details of a felony conviction Ali has on his record, forcing Ali to take to his Facebook page, explain the background of his criminal mistake, and promise not to back down.

Now, sympathizers of convicted domestic terrorist Brett Kimberlin are harassing me, tearing me apart—and coming after my family.

In the past two weeks, hackers have tried accessing my email accounts, they’ve placed a fake SWAT call on a colleague, and just two days ago they posted the address and picture of my mother’s home in an attempt to incite unlawful behavior—or violence.

This is all because the National Bloggers Club is raising funds to relieve some of Aaron Walker’s financial strife—caused by his own legal run-in with Kimberlin. I became a target.

Kimberlin has notified my attorneys that he intends to sue me and my organization directly. By bringing up my past, he hopes to destroy my credibility. By bringing my family into it, he aspires to frighten me into silence.

Despite all of this, I’ll stand for free speech. We’re going to get the peace order against Walker overturned, restore his First Amendment rights, and fight the thugs who are bullying my family.

This is a dangerous man, especially for someone in my position. Note the following from the book written about him, Citizen K:

“For three months, Kimberlin resided at the federal prison in prison in Terra Haute, Indiana, in a unit reserved for convicts awaiting long-term assignments to other institutions. . . . He had resisted a sexual predator by tossing powdered chlorine cleanser in his face. The predator was African American, Kimberlin told me, and as he fended him off he shouted, ‘You f–king n–r! You motherf–kng n–r! Get the f–k away from me! I’ll kill you, you motherf–r!’ Kimberlin enjoyed telling this story.”

– Mark Singer, Citizen K: The Deeply Weird American Journey of Brett Kimberlin (1996), Page 183

I’m going to remain a target because I’m not backing down. I’m an imperfect man still finding my way back to the arms of a loving Father. But right is right and wrong is wrong and Kimberlin cannot hide from the sunlight he’s being exposed to.

Your continued prayers and standing with the other victims and I at KimberlinFiles.org is truly humbling and much appreciated.

I can’t say that we know why the most recent SWATting happened, or any of them, with certainty. But further investigation is certainly warranted. Kimberlin supporters like to call discussing the SWATtings a public trial by blog — mainly because it’s yet another way for them to portray my public speech about matters of public interest as somehow violating my job duties. But that’s nonsense. None of this is a trial by blog. We just want the matter fully investigated and the perpetrators brought to justice.

Eric Holder faces the House Judiciary Committee today. Will the topic come up? We’ll see.

Meanwhile, the Aaron Walker appeal has been announced, and Ali continues to stand tall:

“We’ve got over a dozen lawyers coordinating on this now, volunteering their time. Aaron’s first amendment rights are being violated when he is barred from even being able to publicly mention the case or Kimberlin’s violent past,” said Bloggers Club president Ali A. Akbar.

Akbar continued, “Yesterday they came after the Bloggers Club and my family — my family. We’re not stopping. We’ve got to raise $5,000 more dollars to continue to stand with Aaron Walker and I’m positive supporters will continue to step up.”

This is not an easy thing to do, folks. There are Big Media reporters who are literally scared to report the story. Please support anyone willing to stick their necks out.

5/27/2012

Brett Kimberlin Gets His Wikipedia Entry Removed

Filed under: Brad Friedman,Brett Kimberlin,General,Neal Rauhauser,Ron Brynaert — Patterico @ 12:17 am



[UPDATE: I have heard once again from the Wikipedia editor who removed Brett Kimberlin’s Wikipedia entry. He refuses to tell me who claimed Kimberlin had been the victim of a harassment campaign. He evidently has no regrets about his decision even though Kimberlin has now been exposed as making repeated bogus claims of harassment.

Meanwhile, Wikipedia is moving to restore an entry after an absence of several months, and currently links Kimberlin to an entry on the Speedway Bombings. Over 700 versions of the article await review.]

[UPDATE x2: Symonds is now busy editing the Speedway bombings Wikipedia page. Here is Symonds removing the detail about Carl DeLong’s leg being taken off, and his wife being injured, and cleaning it up so it just reads that DeLong and two others were “injured.” Brett Kimberlin would be thrilled.]

I have described Brett Kimberlin’s campaign of harassment against his critics as “brass-knuckles reputation management.” The idea is to intimidate and harass anyone daring to bring up Kimberlin’s extensive criminal history. There are other examples I’m aware of that can’t be fully told for various reasons, although I hope the victims choose to tell them.

But one of the most concerning aspects of this reputation maintenance campaign is the way history is rewritten. And one example of that is the way that Kimberlin’s Wikipedia entry was whisked away from view on September 14, 2011.

Let’s look at the reason the editor gave for the deletion:

Oh, really? There was a harassment campaign against Brett Kimberlin, was there?

And here I thought it was the other way around. Here I thought he was the guy harassing others. Silly me!

And we certainly can’t discuss in public the reason that accurate facts are being whisked away from a source that 4 out of 5 suckers consider reliable.

The idea that there is a harassment campaign against Brett Kimberlin is a reputation management theory that has been pushed for months by Brett Kimberlin, Neal Rauhauser, and Ron Brynaert — three people who engaged in the extraoardinary and very real harassment campaign against myself and other critics of Brett Kimberlin.

So where did the Wikipedia editor get the idea that there was a harassment campaign against Brett Kimberlin? In early May 2012, I decided to write the editor, Richard Symonds, and ask why the page was deleted.

Our dialogue follows.

(more…)

5/25/2012

Convicted Bomber Brett Kimberlin, Neal Rauhauser, Ron Brynaert, and Their Campaign of Political Terrorism

You’re about to listen to one of the most bone-chilling pieces of audio you will ever hear. At least, it was to me when I first heard it.

It’s a phone call that could have gotten me killed.

In this post you will hear that audio clip. You will also read about a months-long campaign of harassment carried out by at least three individuals: Ron Brynaert, Neal Rauhauser, and Brett Kimberlin — much of it directed at critics of Brett Kimberlin. This harassment includes repeated references to critics’ family members, workplace complaints, publication of personal information such as home addresses and pictures of residences, bogus allegations of criminal activity, whisper campaigns, frivolous legal actions, and frivolous State Bar complaints.

And finally, you will hear a comparison of one of those men’s voices to that of the man who made the call that sent police to my home. And you’ll read a declaration from a forensic audio expert comparing those two voices.

BREITBART TOLD THE STORY JUST BEFORE HE DIED

In the last radio interview Andrew Breitbart ever gave, on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show, Breitbart talked about a new ruthless tactic used by thugs against political opponents:

[O]ne of the things they’ve done to people who have worked with me in the past, including an L.A. prosecutor, is to “SWAT.” That means that they’re spoofing phones, pretending to be somebody else’s phone, calling 911, and saying “I killed somebody” and then the person’s home is met with the guns drawn, the SWAT and the helicopters, in a horrifying act. It’s happened twice: once in New Jersey, once in Los Angeles, with an L.A. County . . . prosecutor who [is] associated with me.”

I am that L.A. County prosecutor. And in this post, you’ll hear the hoax call that sent police to my house, pointing loaded guns at me.

THE NIGHT I COULD HAVE BEEN KILLED BECAUSE OF MY BLOGGING

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.

Deputies led me down the street to a patrol car parked about 2-3 houses away. At least one neighbor was watching out of her window as I was placed, handcuffed, in the back of the patrol car. I saw numerous patrol cars on my quiet street. There was a police helicopter flying overhead, shining a spotlight down on us as I walked towards the patrol car. Several neighbors later told us the helicopter woke them up. I saw a fire engine and an ambulance. A neighbor later told me they had a HazMat vehicle out on the street as well.

Meanwhile, police 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. Someone had pretended to be me. They called the police to say I had shot my wife. The sheriff’s deputies who arrived at my front door believed they were about to confront an armed man who had just shot his wife. I don’t blame the police for any of their actions. But I blame the person who made the call.

Because I could have been killed.

The weirdest part of the whole thing was that I halfway expected this might happen. Because I was not the first one it had happened to.

I think it’s about time you heard the call that sent police to my home.

“SWATTING” CAN KILL PEOPLE

What you just heard and read is no joke. It actually happened. The phenomenon is called “SWATting,” because it can bring a SWAT team to your front door. SWATting is a particularly dangerous hoax in which a caller, generally a computer hacker, calls a police department to report a shooting at the home of his enemy. The caller will place this call to the police department’s business line, using Skype or a similar service, and hiding behind Internet proxies to make the call impossible to trace. Anxious police, believing they are responding to the home of an armed and dangerous man, show up at the front door pointing guns and screaming orders.

That is exactly what happened to me. It is a very dangerous hoax that could get the target killed.


Above: an anonymous Kimberlin supporter mocks my swatting in August 2011, before it was publicly known. The reference is to an article about a 2008 swatting case in Dallas.

Although I am an L.A. County Deputy D.A., it is certain that I was “swatted” because of my blog and not because of my job. As Andrew Breitbart noted, this happened to two people within the course of a single week: a man in New Jersey and myself. Both of us had had contact with Andrew Breitbart. Both of us were writing about the same story. And both of us received email threats days before we were swatted. The threat to me said, in part: “Please think about your family. This story is not worth it. I can assure you that.”

WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?

So who perpetrated this crime on me and my family?

I reported the crime to the FBI on July 1, 2011. (Obviously, the Sheriff’s Department was already aware of it, since they had come to my house.) Unfortunately, law enforcement has not solved the case. Worse, they have failed to follow up on a number of leads I have given them.

But there is circumstantial evidence suggesting who may be responsible. I met personally with the nationwide experts on swatting in December 2011: the FBI office in Dallas, Texas. They told me that swatting is an extreme form of harassment — and that swatters typically combine swatting with other forms of harassment, including: complaining to the victim’s workplace, defaming the victim online, “Googlebombing” the victim, publishing the victim’s address online, filing phony reports of criminal activity by the victim, and so forth.

All of these things have happened to me and other critics of Brett Kimberlin since July 2011. The harassment has been relentless and has occurred almost every day. It would literally take a book to catalogue it all. What you read in this post, incredibly, is only part of it.

Why target me? Well, I first wrote about Brett Kimberlin in October 2010, after getting a call from Andrew Breitbart. Andrew told me that his site was going to publish a post about a domestic terrorist named Brett Kimberlin. The story sounded interesting, and I published a post about Kimberlin shortly after the Breitbart post (penned by Mandy Nagy aka Liberty Chick) was published.

The next day, Kimberlin threatened to sue me. He said: “I have filed over a hundred lawsuits and another one will be no sweat for me. On the other hand, it will cost you a lot of time and money and for what.” I asked him to identify any specific falsehoods in my post and he did not. I published subsequent posts about topics like Kimberlin’s alleged murderous plots to escape from prison and exact revenge on his enemies and an examination of his non-profits’ tax returns. In February 2011, I talked about stalkerish intimidation tactics used by Kimberlin and his business partner, Brad Friedman of the “Brad Blog.”

It’s fair to say I have been one of Brett Kimberlin’s least favorite people in the world for a good long time now.

THE RELENTLESS AND VICIOUS HARASSMENT OF CRITICS OF BRETT KIMBERLIN, BY KIMBERLIN AND HIS SUPPORTERS

Beginning about the time I was swatted in July 2011, the harassment I had already experienced from Kimberlin was stepped up several notches — and other Kimberlin critics were also targeted. Several anonymous accounts identifying themselves as supporters of Kimberlin’s have participated in the harassment. These anonymous harassers go by names like @OccupyRebellion, @BreitbartUnmask, Gaped Crusader, and “Just Call Me Lefty.”

But much of the harassment Kimberlin critics have experienced has occurred at the hands of three named individuals: Ron Brynaert, Neal Rauhauser, and Brett Kimberlin.

Meet Ron Brynaert

Ron Brynaert is a so-called “journalist” who last August threatened me and my wife in the most despicable manner possible:

References to my wife come completely out of left field. She is a Democrat and cancels out my vote in every election. The only reason anyone would bring her up online is to intimidate and harass my family.

Brynaert explicitly connected his desire to do violence to me to his defense of Brett Kimberlin. The night he threatened me and my wife, Brynaert defended Kimberlin in a long series of tweets pointing out alleged holes in the case against Kimberlin. Brynaert said I was slandering Kimberlin:

One of Brynaert’s arguments was that certain of the witnesses against Kimberlin had been hypnotized. Apparently, it greatly upset Brynaert that I wasn’t responding to this argument, and he threatened violence as a result:

Ron Brynaert has been a guest blogger at The Brad Blog, run by Brad Friedman, a business partner of Brett Kimberlin’s. Brynaert has described himself as a friend of Friedman’s. Brynaert was for years the editor of a Raw Story, a publication that has teamed up with the Brad Blog to put out Brad Friedman’s radio show:


In 2008, during Brynaert’s tenure as editor of Raw Story, Kimberlin was introduced as the “moving force behind Raw Story.” (Hat tip to Seth Allen.) Kimberlin did not object to that characterization.

Meet Neal Rauhauser

Neal Rauhauser is a creepy far-left activist. There is evidence that, using the handle “Iowa Boy,” Rauhauser has engaged in violent rhetoric, including calling for the public hanging of Republicans and the shooting of Dick Cheney. Rauhauser speaks regularly of the hacking group Anonymous and frequently suggests that his enemies are opening themselves up to Internet harassment.


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

Three days after I was swatted, Rauhauser wrote a post titled “Patterico’s Penalization” that made bizarre accusations about me, and accused me of working with a “cyberstalker” named Seth Allen — a blogger who had criticized Brett Kimberlin so tenaciously that Kimberlin (frivolously) sued Allen for defamation. In that post, Rauhauser publicized a State Bar complaint that Kimberlin had filed 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:

Here is Rauhauser further publicizing Brett Kimberlin’s State Bar complaint against me, and stating his belief that if enough such complaints accumulate, I will be fired:

And here is Rauhauser talking about how he wants to see me fired, prosecuted, and bankrupted — all for purely political reasons:

Rauhauser is a fan of abusive litigation for purposes of political harassment:

Kimberlin has described Rauhauser as an “associate” of his. Rauhauser has written of working with Kimberlin and meeting with him personally. They have appeared in court together. 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 Velvet Revolution.


Above: as “WeOccupyAmerica, Rauhauser says he is closely connected with Brynaert, to his “chagrin.”

HOW BRYNAERT, RAUHAUSER, KIMBERLIN AND ANONYMOUS INTERNET ENTITIES HAVE TARGETED KIMBERLIN CRITICS FOR RELENTLESS HARASSMENT

On many occasions, Ron Brynaert, Neal Rauhauser, Brett Kimberlin, and anonymous Kimberlin supporters have harassed me and other Kimberlin critics in a similar manner — using tactics that the FBI told me are characteristic of swatters:

  • Harassment of wives and family members — As noted above, Rauhauser asked readers for pictures of my wife. He and Brynaert have spoken of investigating my wife’s work as a Deputy District Attorney. Rauhauser and @OccupyRebellion have insinuated that my wife played a role in impersonating fake teens in the Anthony Weiner scandal. Kimberlin supporters @OccupyRebellion and @BreitbartUnmask have spoken of obtaining a picture of my wife. The Gaped Crusader constantly brought up my wife.

    The Gaped Crusader wrote like Neal Rauhauser, talked about the same topics as Neal Rauhauser, and once left a comment on my site with the same IP address that Neal Rauhauser used to leave a comment on another site.

    Brynaert has said my wife and I should be fired, and (as noted) has talked about taking a “shit” on my wife.

    The obsession with family members recently extended to Stacy McCain, with Kimberlin apparently having contacting Stacy’s wife’s employer, causing McCain to flee his house. Kimberlin supporter @BreitbartUnmask has mentioned the names of Stacy’s children online. @BreitbartUnmask has publicly outed a commenter of mine, discussed that commenter’s divorce records, and named his father.

  • Publication of home addresses — OccupyforAccountability.org, a site related to Kimberlin, published my home address, as well as a Google street view and Google aerial view of my home. The “Gaped Crusader” republished that address.

    Donations at OccupyforAccountability.org go to Kimberlin’s Velvet Revolution. The same post published what the author stated was Andrew Breitbart’s home address. Andrew later told me it was actually a home owned by Andrew’s parents and rented out to others. Kimberlin later sent interrogatories to me at the address listed on OccupyforAccountability.org — and sent interrogatories to Andrew at the address the site had listed for Andrew. Andrew’s interrogatories eventually made their way to him, and he told me about it and gave me a copy of them.

    Kimberlin unnecessarily put Aaron Walker’s home address in court documents. Kimberlin had a habit of putting information into court documents — information that is later disseminated by Rauhauser and Brynaert.

  • Workplace complaints — Brynaert and Kimberlin have both filed complaints against me with my office. (Rauhauser and Brynaert have spoken of these complaints publicly.)

    When Brynaert contacted my office, he initially called the very same person Kimberlin had complained to — even though that person was no longer my boss. If Brynaert had simply called asking for my boss, the office would probably not have routed Brynaert to the same person Kimberlin had complained to. But if Brynaert asked for that same person by name, they would route the call to that person.

    Kimberlin also spoke to at least two secretaries in my office, calling me a stalker, a racist, a homophobe, and saying he was going to have to get a restraining order against me. I had to explain to the secretaries that the man who called them had been convicted of setting off several bombs and had been sentenced to 50 years in federal prison — but was now free and harassing me.

    Rauhauser has encouraged people to file complaints against me, as has anonymous Kimberlin supporter @BreitbartUnmask. The “Gaped Crusader” spoke of sending packets of defamatory material about me to candidates running in the election for District Attorney, as well as to defense attorneys on my cases. As noted, Brynaert has stated that my wife and I should be fired. Anonymous Kimberlin supporter @OccupyRebellion constantly talks about how I will be fired and disbarred.

    Brynaert wrote to Andrew Breitbart defaming his employee Mandy Nagy (aka Liberty Chick), who wrote that comprehensive piece about Kimberlin in October 2010 I mentioned earlier.

    Kimberlin put Aaron Walker’s home and work address into court documents. The inclusion of the work address contributed to Aaron’s being fired, due to the employer’s fear that a convicted bomber might appear at their workplace.

    Kimberlin contacted Stacy McCain’s wife’s workplace.

    Brynaert contacted a man named Ken Ashford in an attempt to learn Aaron Walker’s real name, and threatened to email every member of Ashford’s firm claiming Ashford had harassed him. Brynaert later contacted the Human Resources Department at Ashford’s firm to complain about him.

  • Abuse of court process — Kimberlin has filed numerous frivolous court actions against Aaron Walker and Seth Allen. The details of the court appearances are frequently reported — with a pro-Kimberlin spin — by Rauhauser and Brynaert. In a blatant abuse of the court’s process, Kimberlin served invalid interrogatories in the Seth Allen lawsuit on me, Aaron Walker, Mandy Nagy, and Andrew Breitbart. Rauhauser and @OccupyRebellion publicly referred to those interrogatories and asked when we were going to answer them.

    When police gave Kimberlin a picture of Allen from his driver’s license, that picture made its way into the hands of Rauhauser and Brynaert, who published it online.

    Kimberlin threatened to sue me right after I first published my first blog post about him. He told Walker’s pro bono attorney that he is planning a RICO lawsuit against me, Nagy, Walker, and Seth Allen.

    Nadia Naffe’s civil claim against me — Nadia Naffe has now filed a civil claim against me and my boss Steve Cooley — and the lawyer is Jay Leiderman, an online buddy of Neal Rauhauser’s who put out a request on a defense attorney mailing list to investigate whether any defense attorneys don’t like me. Although I have not seen the legal claim myself, excerpts of Naffe’s legal claim have appeared at the web site of self-described Kimberlin supporter and Rauhauser friend BreitbartUnmasked.com. Before the claim was filed, Rauhauser and @BreitbartUnmasked encouraged Naffe to file the sorts of claims that appear in the civil claim.

    Naffe has publicly said that she plans to use her lawsuit against me to ask questions in discovery about the value of my house — a topic in which Rauhauser and @OccupyRebellion have expressed interest in the past. According to a friend of mine, Naffe has also said that she plans to ask me and my wife under oath the true identity of conservative blogger Ace of Spades. Which is not something she ought to care about, since Ace had never said a word about her (although he has now).

    You know who cares about Ace’s identity? Brett Kimberlin supporter @BreitbartUnmask. He has written entire posts about Ace’s identity. And before I was swatted, someone threatened me by email. That person threatened one other person the same night: Ace of Spades.

    Additionally, Brett Kimberlin has used a subpoena in the Seth Allen lawsuit to subpoena James O’Keefe’s stolen emails from Naffe — despite the fact that there has been a final judgment in that lawsuit.

  • Outing — Ace has good reason to be concerned, as this group has a history of outing anonymous critics. Aaron Walker’s identity was outed by Brett Kimberlin after he received an “anonymous tip.” Seth Allen’s identity was also outed by Kimberlin.

    In addition to furiously harassing Ken Ashford for Aaron Walker’s true name, Ron Brynaert also wrote Yale alumni affairs officials asking for information about Aaron. Within a single day of Brynaert’s failed campaign to learn Aaron’s true name and location, Brett Kimberlin wrote Aaron demanding that Aaron disclose his true name and location.

  • Whisper campaigns — Brynaert and Kimberlin have both contacted people that they identified as online “enemies” of mine to complain of alleged harassment at my hands. Brynaert has recently taken to contacting other major bloggers to defame me, Aaron Walker, and Mandy Nagy. I have been forwarded emails by Brynaert from several notable bloggers.
  • Frivolous claims of criminal wrongdoing — I am told Kimberlin filed frivolous claims of stalking against me with an anti-stalking unit in my office. Rauhauser has encouraged people to report me to that same unit. Interestingly enough, the anonymous person who threatened me by email before I was swatted mentioned the very same unit.

    Brynaert has also constantly claimed that critics of Kimberlin have stalked him and Kimberlin. @OccupyRebellion has made the same claim.

    I am told Kimberlin filed frivolous criminal charges against me with the California Attorney General. Rauhauser encouraged Daily Kos readers to file complaints against me with the California Attorney General.

    Rauhauser compiled a large packet of defamatory material accusing me, Walker, Nagy, and others of participating in criminal activity, and said he had sent it to state police in New Jersey and the FBI in Baltimore. He made the entire packet available as a torrent.

    Writing as Stranded Wind at Daily Kos (where he has since been banned), Rauhauser insinuated that I had obtained forged documentation during the course of my employment to support claims by shadowy Internet entity John Reid. @OccupyRebellion has made the same insinuations.

    Rauhauser and anonymous Kimberlin supporters claimed that I criminally intimidated a witness by criticizing Nadia Naffe on my blog — an allegation that apparently has surfaced in her civil claim against me and my boss Steve Cooley.

    Kimberlin claimed Walker assaulted him in a courthouse and made several claims regarding the incident that have been disproven by a video. Kimberlin’s claims were repeated by Brynaert, @OccupyRebellion, and @BreitbartUnmask. Rauhauser and @OccupyRebellion falsely alleged that Walker had been arrested for this crime, and repeatedly asserted that he had beaten Kimberlin.

    Brynaert has recently accused Aaron Walker of “extortion” for sending Brynaert a settlement demand letter in Walker’s lawsuit against Brynaert. Brynaert accused me and Mandy Nagy of being part of the “conspiracy” to “extort” Brynaert. In fact, just yesterday, Brynaert used the threat of going to the NYPD as a way to deter me from publishing this post, saying that he was going to the police as soon as I published:

    Brynaert has accused me of criminal harassment. @OccupyRebellion has consistently accused me, Walker, and Nagy of being criminals.

    Brynaert, Rauhauser, and @OccupyRebellion have insinuated or stated that I was not swatted, that I filed a false police report concerning that swatting, and that in fact I am the person who committed the swatting of the man in New Jersey.

  • Frivolous State Bar complaints or threats to file State Bar complaints — Kimberlin filed a frivolous State Bar complaint against me, and has now filed a State Bar complaint against Aaron Walker. Kimberlin insinuated he might file a State Bar complaint against Walker’s pro bono lawyer. Brynaert threatened to file a State Bar complaint against Aaron Walker and Ken Ashford (the man who refused to tell Brynaert the true name of Aaron Walker).
  • General harassment — The “Gaped Crusader,” published a picture of a naked man with his penis exposed, and claimed that it was Deputy District Attorney John Patrick Frey. Here are some Gaped Crusader screenshots:

    The image above was not fuzzed out on the Gaped Crusader blog.

    Kimberlin supporter @BreitbartUnmasked harassed Aaron on Twitter, and gave accurate details about Aaron’s driving record that do not appear to be publicly available.

    After a court appearance in which Aaron tried to get a peace order against Rauhauser, Rauhauser wrote an email to me and other friends of his which said, among other things: “Given Walker’s state of mind I would say his wife might find him hanging in the garage tonight when she gets home from work.”

    Rauhauser called me at my office and left a message on my work voice mail, claiming that Aaron appeared to be suffering a psychological breakdown and needed help.

    Rauhauser and anonymous Kimberlin supporters have consistently accused Aaron of being bigoted against Muslims. Rauhauser wrote Aaron mocking emails talking about how Muslims were likely to try to kill him because of his “Everyone Draw Mohammed” site. Kimberlin wrote Aaron’s local police purporting to be concerned that, because Kimberlin had been “forced” (he claimed) to file a court document containing all Aaron’s personal information, that Muslims would get hold of that document and put Aaron in danger. Even after Aaron lost his job, someone either arranged for, or pretended to be, a Muslim group that threatened to take protest and diplomatic actions against Aaron’s workplace until they heard Aaron had been fired.

    Kimberlin defenders took court audio of Allen and put it on YouTube, showing a graphic of Allen’s face from his driver’s license picture.

    Mandy Nagy endured months of harassment from Rauhauser, @Occupy Rebellion, and others. @OccupyRebellion mocked Nagy’s illnesses and personal tragedies. She told Nagy that she hoped Nagy died of cancer. She claimed that Nagy (a rape victim) had never been raped. She repeatedly called Nagy a “cunt.” And she told Nagy that Nagy had put her own family’s life in danger.

    Nagy says she has been told by friends that people have been calling them asking questions about her, and that she has seen people seemingly staking out her residence in various vehicles.

    Meanwhile, @OccupyRebellion and Rauhauser have incessantly accused Nagy of “baiting” Anonymous. This claim itself functions to stir up Anonymous accounts, in an apparent effort to get Anonymous to hack Nagy.

Heard enough about this harassment? Then let’s move on to the voice on my swatting call.

THE VOICE

When I obtained the recording of my swatting, in July 2011, I thought I recognized the voice.

To me, it sounded like Brynaert. Specifically, it sounded like someone trying to disguise his voice at the beginning of the call, by talking in a monotone. Then, at the end of the call, when the dispatcher challenged the caller, the voice seemed to lose its disguised quality . . . and it sounded like Brynaert to me.

Here’s the thing: Brynaert was talking to me on the phone when the police came to my house. That is something that the FBI in Dallas also told me fits the M.O. of a swatter.

Before that phone call, Ron Brynaert had told me that he had important information for me about the Anthony Weiner case. And that is how I ended up talking to him on the phone on the night of June 30, 2011, leading into the early morning hours of July 1.

And that is how it happened that he was on the phone with me when the police showed up to my door.

Let’s listen to Brynaert’s voice compared to that of the caller:

I pushed and pushed for law enforcement to do a forensic comparison of Brynaert’s voice to that of the swatter. I found an interview of Brynaert online, so there was a ready sample for comparison. But they wouldn’t do it. (I was constantly frustrated by the failure of law enforcement to follow up on what seemed like obvious leads. More about that at a future date.)

So I decided to hire my own expert.

Kent Gibson is a forensic voice identification expert. He has done work for the FBI and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, as well as the Los Angeles County Public Defender. He is court-qualified in Los Angeles Superior Court. He is a Yale and Stanford graduate who has had extensive experience in audio work. He is the expert hired by the mother of Mel Gibson’s children to authenticate angry recordings that Mel Gibson left on her answering machine.

I first approached Kent in August 2011, but at the time I was still trying to convince law enforcement to do the comparison themselves. By January 2012 I had given up on law enforcement. I sent Kent my swatting call; the swatting call from New Jersey; a call to BlogTalkRadio that sounded like the swatter; and the Ron Brynaert interview.

The following quote is from Kent Gibson’s declaration, sent to me on February 25, 2012:

In this case the following files were presented for evaluation: Tag names for these four recordings are shown in BOLD. The[y] represent calls from two Swat Hoax cases, one involving Patrick Frey and one involving Mike Stack [the man from New Jersey — ed.].

G-8025959 FREY SWAT – Call made to 911 claiming a shooting at Mr. Frey’s residence on 7/1/2011 at 12:16 AM. Caller impersonates Patrick Frey.

Stack Call – STACK SWAT – Call made to police dispatch in Readington, New Jersey. 6/23/2011 Caller impersonates Mike Stack.

Ron Brynaert Interview.mp3 – BRYNAERT KNOWN – an internet radio interview. This caller is suspected of being the Swat caller re: Frey.

Lee Call-in Radio Show – LEE KNOWN (Lee is interviewer’s name, not caller.) This caller is suspected of being the Swat caller re: Stack.

. . . .

CONCLUSION: Considering all of the evidence presented, it is my expert forensic examiner opinion that it is probable that all voice samples come from the same person.

In other words, it is the opinion of an expert forensic examiner that Ron Brynaert’s voice is probably the voice of the man on my swatting call. A call that could have gotten me killed.

PARTING THOUGHTS

What you have just read is a summary. I have lived this daily — literally daily — for almost a year. There are pieces of evidence I didn’t have room to include. There is so much evidence of harassment it would take you weeks to read about it all.

What’s more, I know that this post is going to result in more harassment. I will almost certainly be sued, despite my careful efforts to stick to the facts. There will likely be more complaints to my workplace.

And I have a feeling they’ll find creative new ways to try to rip my life apart.

As an aside, I have listened to Brett Kimberlin in court audio, saying he meets with Congressmen on a regular basis. I want to make sure these Congressmen know what he’s doing.

I have appreciated the support I have felt in recent days, with people like Michelle Malkin, Instapundit, Stacy McCain, Ace, and many others stepping up and being willing to take on this topic.

It is my hope that the support of the blogosphere will not melt away after today. Because the harassment will almost certainly live on.

It’s an important battle to take on. And I want to stress that this should not be a partisan issue. I believe Brett Kimberlin uses lefty politics as a tool — but he doesn’t believe any of it in his heart. He is looking for a buck. I have been heartened to see left-leaning people of all stripes stand up to this guy in the past, from Mark Singer, the author of Citizen K; to Ken Ashford, who refused to give up Aaron Walker’s identity; to the left-leaning lawyer who represented Aaron pro bono.

It is my hope that left-leaning blogs will recognize that this is not a partisan issue. It is a free speech issue.

Remember how I said one of my commenters was outed? And this crew started talking about his parents? And his divorce records? For being a commenter of mine?

What happened to me could literally happen to anyone. It could happen to you.

If you take nothing else from this post, remember that. It could happen to you.

As always, opinions on this site are my own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of my employer. I speak in my personal capacity and not my official capacity, and do not intend to speak on behalf of my office in any way.

UPDATE: I received this today from Roxanne Cooper:

Raw Story was founded by John Byrne in 2004, and has only ever been owned by John Byrne (and minority-stake owner Mike Rogers, who joined in 2009). Roxanne Cooper became the publisher in October 2010, shortly before Ron Brynaert ended his tenure at the publication. Since March 2011, the editorial direction has been under the management of Megan Carpentier, who has complete editorial discretion separate from management.

Brett Kimberlin and Velvet Revolution are not and never have been involved in the ownership, management or editorial direction of Raw Story. Neither Carpentier nor Cooper had ever heard of Kimberlin or Velvet Revolution prior to the start of the events described by Aaron Worthing, Mandy Nagy and Patrick Frey.

So there you have it.

5/23/2012

Well . . .

Filed under: Brad Friedman,Brett Kimberlin,General,Neal Rauhauser,Ron Brynaert — Patterico @ 9:45 pm



. . . it looks like we’re all pretty much undeterred and focused on telling the truth. Harassment notwithstanding.

Fancy that.

Friday’s the blogburst. I plan to contribute in a major way.

Did I say major?

Yeah. Major.

In the meantime, who knows what tomorrow may bring in the area of criminal harassment?


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