What it's like to get a subpoena (re Toto)

[Jim Choate <ravage@EINSTEIN.ssz.com>]

Hi,

Just thought I'd pass along the latest news in the Toto/Carl Johnson/aka
situation.

I was visited by two nicely mannerd IRS agents this morning. We talked for
about an hour or so about Cypherpunks, CJ, Austin, majordomo, etc. In the
process I was served with a subpoena from the Western District of Washington
to appear on Nov. 18, 1998 at 1:15pm in room 311 of the United States
Courthouse (5th & Madison, Seattle, 98104).

I explained how majordomo works, how to manipulate majordomo to get lists of
subscribers (I used the SSZ subscriber list as an example), and described the
time in July (I believe) when CJ/Toto/aka visited the local meeting. We also
discussed the potential for altering email traffic through a remailer.

I've made it clear I have no problems answering their questions but have no
desire to go to Seattle in Nov. or any other time. They are looking into
whether a deposition given here would be sufficient for their needs. Until
then I'm getting ready for a 2-3 day trip to Seattle in Nov.....

I'm currently trying to decide whether to scan and post the subpoena on the
SSZ webpage.

It's interesting that they requested archives of the list. I explained that
I didn't archive the Cypherpunks or any of my other lists and that other
than minimal configuration issues I don't even archive the OS that runs
einstein (as it takes about 2 hours to rebuild from scratch from CD).

Please don't call or send private email requesting further details. They
didn't ask me to keep any of our discussion confidential but until I better
understand what is going on I'm taking the conservative course (I had a big
fight with myself about whether to even post this).


    ____________________________________________________________________
 
       To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice.

                                                     Confucius

       The Armadillo Group       ,::////;::-.          James Choate
       Austin, Tx               /:'///// ``::>/|/      ravage@ssz.com
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