by Bonnie | May 5, 2024 |
We have some good news for once from the FBI and the United States Attorney’s Office! After a long legal battle and multiple federal lawsuits, the FBI agreed to return our church property that was illegally seized on March 20, 2016. For those of you not familiar with the backstory, FBI Agents arrived at 73 Leverett Street on that day at 0600 hours and executed search warrant 16-MJ-36-01-06 against the Shire Free Church Monadnock. This raid occurred only two weeks after Minister Mark Edgington on Free Talk Live condemned the FBI for their strategy of running a website that resulted in the distribution of hundreds of thousands of pieces of child pornography to thousands of IP addresses while only making ten arrests. The sealed search warrant was presented in redacted form to the members of the church present for the raid, i.e. Minister Ian Freeman, Parishioner TJ The Spy, and Parishioner James “Robinhood” Cleveland. The warrant alleged that on or about February 20, 2015, someone using the IP address at 73 Leverett Street had accessed the website that was part of the FBI’s vast child pornography distribution network, in violation of 18 USC 2252.
The returned electronic items. Christmas came early!
TJ The Spy confronted the FBI Agents while naked to avoid being shot and immediately informed Scott Bailey, the lead investigating FBI Agent, that all three members of the church were invoking their right to remain silent and asking for legal counsel to be present. See the FBI raid and how to invoke your rights while naked here. When you invoke your right to an attorney, law enforcement is prohibited from trying to question you until your attorney is present. Despite asking for counsel, one FBI Agent attempted to question the church members by calling them “pedophiles” and asking “You know what they like to do to kiddie-diddlers in prison, don’t you?” TJ responded that all three church members enjoyed the presumption of innocence under law and that a federal judge might think his question was a veiled threat designed to pressure, intimidate, or coerce a subject into waiving their constitutionally protected rights to counsel and silence. In other words, the Agent’s question would taint the voluntariness of any admission and rule the confession inadmissible. TJ then called the Agent an “unprofessional fucking asshole” for attempting to break the law with regards to the Miranda decision. The FBI proceeded to seize all the church members’ computers, cell phones, digital storage media, and cameras.
Fast forward to 2019. After multiple requests to the FBI for the property’s return were ignored, TJ The Spy filed a federal lawsuit pro se (without a lawyer) against the FBI alleging that the search warrant was technically defective under the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure Rule 41(b). Since the First Circuit Court of Appeals had already ruled the warrant invalid in another similar case, TJ asked the court for a judicial writ compelling the FBI to return his stolen computers. Faced with the prospect of having to defend an invalid search warrant in open court, the FBI agreed to return the computers belonging to TJ and Robinhood in exchange for dropping the lawsuit. The four computer items were returned unsearched and sealed in their original evidence bags.
A problem occurred when Ian Freeman attempted to get the rest of the church’s property back. Since the remainder of the seized items were owned wholly by the Shire Free Church Monadnock, only a licensed attorney could represent the church before the court. Bonnie Freeman retained Attorney Jared Bedrick from the Champions Law firm in Portsmouth who filed a lawsuit on behalf of the church. Since the first search warrant was ruled invalid, the FBI applied for and was granted a second search warrant to purge the church’s property of any digital contraband. After much waiting, the FBI finally returned all but two of the seized items to the church. The FBI considers this case closed and no criminal charges will be pursued. Yet the possible goal the FBI might have had in this case, of tainting the reputation of Free Talk Live, the Shire Free Church and certain members, was likely accomplished in many people’s minds. So it is important to remember the fact that the allegations were never proven and no evidence was ever produced.
by ridley | May 5, 2024 |
https://forum.shiresociety.com/t/free-talk-live-sponsor-roger-ver-arrested-in-spain-on-u-s-tax-evasion-charges/13808
by Bonnie | May 2, 2024 |
On May 1st, Tony Schinella published an article on Patch.com reporting an accusation made by Francesca Potenza of Rochester against Elliot “Alu” Axelman. Schinella did not attempt to obtain a comment from Axelman or his attorney, which is standard practice in journalism. The article only told one side of the story and suffered from a number of inaccuracies. This will correct the record.
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by Mr Penguin | Apr 29, 2024 |
Crypto users gathered at Little Zoe’s Pizza in Keene for Bitcoin Pizza Day 2019.
It’s been a crazy year with the largest gang in town cracking down on cryptocurrency! From the Crypto6 trial in our very own Keene NH to the arrests of developers writing privacy friendly tools like Tornado Cash. While cryptocurrency accepting businesses and end-users have nothing to worry about the US federal government is doing everything in its power and more to take out cryptocurrency businesses and the technology that underpins it. As was demonstrated in the Crypto6 trial (new NBC DocU series video just released) the truth and evidence are irrelevant. Tell a good story and that’s all the government needs for a conviction. That same playbook is now being used to attack (arrest) the developers of the self-custody Samourai Wallet. The way this wallet works is no different than any other fully self-custody wallet. It doesn’t connect to any centralized service. It’s built off standard crypto protocols and yet the federal government is fraudulently claiming it’s a ‘money laundering service’. No such service exists and as the sources are available (the government appears to have missed them) you can still download, build, and use the software despite that the government has censored the developers via stealing their website, domain, and so forth. If that is allowed to stand there will be no completely legal self-custody wallet developers left unmolested by the US government within the US or any foreign territory the tentacles arms reach.
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by Highline | Apr 27, 2024 |
Judge Susan Ashley has issued an ORDER that my appearance on behalf of Joa is allowed.
I have been filed documents with the Court that I imagine the Judge hasn’t reviewed yet, pending this order. I have been doing so because time is limited as the trial scheduled for May 21st.
by Highline | Apr 26, 2024 |
We’ve gone silent for the last few weeks while we’ve worked on collecting audio/video authorization forms from four different District Courts in New Hampshire. Four courts have allowed Joa to film anonymously while the Hillsborough District Court had him arrested for doing it. These documents and requests are still pending.
Joa has filed a Motion To Compel the Release of Criminal Records to have the Court order the State to release his criminal records for trial preparation as the prosecutor was reluctant to do so. This is a normal procedure as there are very strict rules governing the release of these records.
I’d like to mention that the prosecutor has been nothing but a gentleman and actually helpful to me personally in explaining some lawyerly procedures to me that I wasn’t too familiar with. I believe he represents the community of Hillsborough very professionally. I unfortunately don’t have years of law school and mock trial preparation like he and other lawyers do, so I am most grateful to him.
The trial date is presently scheduled for May 21st at 1:00PM.
by Mr Penguin | Apr 21, 2024 |
Around ~250 supporters turned out for Ian’s sentencing hearing between day 1 & 2 with some overlap
Ian Freeman, Minister of the Shire Free Church, Free Talk Live Co-host, libertarian activist, and major activist for peace and spreading cryptocurrency was arrested in 2021 during the Crypto6 incident where various libertarian and cryptocurrency activists were wrongly arrested and fraudulently defamed by the federal government. His arrest eventually led to a trial after refusing to accept a plea deal for crimes not actually committed. Since then the district court has slandered his name and repeated lies. That is to say just about every other word if not more from federal authorities and prosecutors mouths has been a lie. Evidence presented didn’t align with the story told and for the most part if properly understood proved Ian’s innocence. The court seemed to agree to one degree or another with convictions on only ~8 of ~27 counts, one charge dropped entirely for lack of evidence, and a sentence that is less than half the minimum allowed. That is despite the crimes Ian was convicted of he’s been sentenced to a ‘mere’ ~8 years. Of course this is ~8 years too many given the fraudulent claims of the federal government, but none-the-less. Ian will likely serve 4 1/2 years with various good time credits.
While the trial is over the appeals are not and in the mean time the authorities have decided to move Ian from a jail in New Hampshire to a prison in Massachusetts. That is he is no longer at the Merrimack County Spiritual Retreat. He is now at the Devens Spiritual Retreat. Ian is in the low security part of the prison, so he’s got a room and cell mate. This is one up from the camp where Aria is housed. He can’t just walk away as might be possible if he was in the camp (not that he would).
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