How did a US probe into Chinese spying end up as a child pornography prosecution?
A Boeing company manager convicted of child pornography charges in December says he has a right to know what arguments the government used to obtain the warrant from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
FBI agents investigating a potential data leak at Boeing obtained a secret search warrant two years ago to search the home computers of Keith Gartenlaub, for evidence they hoped would connect him to Chinese espionage.
Now, the Los Angeles case is testing a defendant’s ability to access information about himself presented to the nation’s secretive intelligence court, which issued the warrant that let agents scour his computers.
Either I’m this spy-slash-child pornographer, or I’m one of them, or I’m none of them. I’m telling you, I’m none of them
At issue is how the government uses evidence derived through the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court and under what circumstances that information should be seen by defendants, particularly when it’s repurposed for a routine criminal prosecution that has nothing to do with national security.
Gartenlaub and his lawyers say they have a right to know the government’s arguments that were used to obtain the warrant, and fight them. “You can’t base a search on lies,” the 47-year-old said in an interview.
He’s seeking a new trial as he awaits his April 18 sentencing, saying there’s no evidence he was aware of the child pornography or had ever accessed the images.
The Justice Department noted that the judge, Christina Snyder, already ruled that the FISA warrant was lawfully issued and that the evidence was gathered properly.
“When law enforcement lawfully obtains evidence of a serious crime, in this case a crime against children, we will pursue further investigation of that crime,” the department said in a statement.