Aaron Swartz prosecution weighed his politics The late technologist's supporters respond with fury as DoJ defends case which included targeting activist writings

Late last week a Justice Department official told a congressional committee investigating the prosecution of late technologist Aaron Swartz that the young man's political writings had been taken into account in building their criminal case. According to HuffPo's Ryan Reilly "a Justice Department representative told congressional staffers during a recent briefing on the computer fraud prosecution of Internet activist Aaron Swartz that Swartz's 'Guerilla Open Access Manifesto' played a role in the prosecution."

Swartz had co-authored the manifesto in 2008, which advocated for civil disobedience against copyright laws. The document, which Swartz did not even write alone and which made no mention of specific intentions to breach any copyright laws, was used by the DoJ to illustrate that Swartz had "malicious intent in downloading documents on a massive scale." However, there was no specific evidence that Swartz intended to share the millions of JSTOR articles he downloaded -- and certainly no suggestion that Swartz ever aimed to profit off the articles. Indeed, it bears constant repeating that the Justice Department pursued felony charges against the activist even when the purported victim, online academic publisher JSTOR, had declined to press any charges.

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The government's admission that Swartz's (co-authored and years-old) political manifesto was used as evidence for criminal intent is troubling enough. Swartz's ideals about open data were used against him -- what clearer evidence of ideological persecution is needed? Yet, as Reilly reported, "the Justice Department believed federal prosecutors acted in a reasonable manner, according to the sources."

Swartz's loved ones and supported reacted with fury, having already fingered prosecutorial overreach as partly to blame for the brilliant technologist's suicide. Swartz's partner, Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman Tuesday published a pointed reaction to the revelation that the DoJ had explicitly weighed Swartz's politics. She wrote: