Section 213 of the PATRIOT Act authorized courts to issue “delayed notice” search warrants. The DOJ has argued that Section 213 didn’t invent “secret searches” (because courts occasionally issued delayed notice warrants before 213) but the legal rules varied wildly among different jurisdictions. However, the bottom line is that no-one can argue that Section 213 didn’t increase their use substantially. And the crucial point, omitted from the press releases, is that Section 213 wasn’t only for terrorism cases. Sneak and Peek Warrants could be obtained to investigate ordinary federal crimes. And use them they have, in 2020 courts issued about 20,000 sneak & peek warrants. That should alarm you; because, the PATRIOT Act was marketed as an anti-terrorism measure, but the mission creep has been substantial.
In my case the NIT warrant was a Sneak & Peek Warrant as well as a technically “void ab initio” warrant. My first CJA (Joseph Gross) noticed that the warrant had violated rule 41(f); because, they didn’t notify any of the defendants of the search until after the 30 day requirement. (Most didn’t get notified for over six months.) The Court ruled in October of 2014 that that the clear violation of rule 41(f) didn’t require suppression because it gave the DOJ/FBI a “good faith” exception to the exclusionary rule. (Subsequent Appellate Courts also gave them a “good faith” exception for their blatant rule 41(b) violation as well.) As I’ve mentioned in passing before, I asked both Gross & Howard about the 41(b) violation in my case and they both ignored my inquiry. It’s just another case of the government being allowed to break the law to enforce the law and that never ends well.
In sum, what occurred in my case was that the DOJ/FBI violated rule 41(b) & 41(f) and got an unjustified “good faith” pass. BUT, as I have chronicle on this blog, I didn’t really care too much about the NIT warrant itself (especially when combined with the legitimate records most of the websites generated.) In other words, MOST of the defendants were indeed guilty; BUT, not all of them – Because, TB2’s logs were objectively FAKE.
Howard still refused to provide a single page from my case file and the WDNY Court is still considering “Summary Judgement” in my FOIA case. Have I mentioned how angry I am? LOL