Matt DeHart
Matt DeHart | |
|---|---|
| Born | June 11, 1984 |
| Nationality | American |
Matthew Paul "Matt" DeHart (born on June 11, 1984) is an American citizen from Newburgh, Indiana who sought asylum in Canada after the FBI interrogated him about his involvement in the Anonymous hacker group and WikiLeaks and he had been kept in prison for 20 months without providing proofs for crimes he allegedly committed.[2][3] He was indicted by a grand jury in Tennessee in October 2010 on charges of production and transportation of child pornography, which DeHart purports is as a ruse by the FBI.[4][2][5][6] He faces a minimum of 15 years and a maximum of 25 years in federal prison if convicted.[7] The US Department of Justice admitted there were classified reports on him which confirmed he was arrested “for questioning in an espionage matter”; it was a “national security investigation”. He joined the Air National Guard (ANG) in February 2008 but was discharged in June 2009. Officially the reason was "psychological problems". DeHart says that he had been asked to resign after his superiors had learned about his activism.[8][9][10]
Early life and education
Matt DeHart grew up in Newburgh, Indiana, with his parents, Paul and Leann, both former members of U.S. Military. They married in 1978. The DeHart family is based on military tradition and Christian and conservative beliefs. From an early age, DeHart was a tech geek. He started a group called KAOS (Kaos Anti-Security Operations Syndicate) in 2000.
He graduated from high school in 2002.[11] He took classes through Corning Community College.[12]
In 2004, he spent time on 4chan, a message board which gave birth to Anonymous. Besides socializing and gaming online, DeHart developed interests in encryption, internet freedom and privacy. In 2008, he took part in Project Chanology, Anonymous' anti-Scientology campaign.
Career
In 2008, DeHart enlisted in the U.S. Air National Guard, becoming an intelligence analyst and drone pilot.[13] In 2009, he was discharged from the National Guard, with an honorable dismissal, as a consequence of a diagnosis of depression. DeHart says after his superiors had learned about his activism he had been offered a lump sum if he resigned but he had refused to do so.
Charges and arrest
Matt DeHart staged online activities using the anonymity network Tor. In 2009, he discovered documents of an FBI investigation of the CIA had been uploaded to the server The Shell, on a computer inside his bedroom, which he removed because of the sensitive contents. In a second time he found out an encrypted version of the same file placed on another hidden server allegedly forwarded to WikiLeaks.
On January 25, 2010, FBI officers raided the DeHart’s home in Newburgh, Indiana. They executed a search warrant (from the Memphis FBI field office) for child pornography and seized DeHart’s computers and every single device. No child pornography has ever been found.
As a consequence of the charges, DeHart decided to seek asylum by the Russian Embassy in Washington DC (2650 Wisconsin Avenue), where he made a visit with his father. The Russian Embassy denied DeHart asylum, so he moved with his family to Canada.
In March 2010 DeHart applied for a US updated passport, which he got in less than a month. The following month, April 2010, DeHart, started an eight-week French immersion course, in Montreal, Quebec, with ILSC-Montreal, staying at a home with other international students. DeHart planned to take a welding class at Holland College in Prince Edward Island, and his parents settled him into a studio apartment in Charlottetown, near Holland College campus. As a foreign national in Canada, DeHart had to make an application to obtain a student visa from outside the country.
On August 5, 2010 DeHart took a bus from Charlottetown to St. Stephen, New Brunswick, to reach the nearest border crossing and on August 6, he walked across the St. Croix River Bridge, that separates it from Calais, Maine. At the US border patrol office, after handing over his US passport, DeHart was arrested and taken into custody by FBI agents. US authorities contacted police in Charlottetown, asking for his studio apartment to be searched as part of a child pornography investigation. The material seized from DeHart’s apartment, was not sent to Tennessee but to the FBI’s field office in Washington DC, U.S. Department of Justice.
Two years after DeHart’s arrest, the US Department of Justice admitted there were classified reports on him which confirmed he was arrested “for questioning in an espionage matter”; it was a “national security investigation”. There was no mention of pornography.
Dehart was placed in a cell at Calais’s Large International Avenue Immigration and Customs Enforcement Detention Center for questioning. Seventeen hours after his arrest, DeHart was brought to Eastern Maine Medical Center where he received psychiatric treatment, including involuntary medication. DeHart describes the psychiatric care he received as "torture". Once medically cleared, he was questioned by the FBI, according to DeHart, about his military unit, Russian Embassy, Anonymous, WikiLeaks. “They started with people in my military unit, what the connection was between them, me and the Russian embassy; and then started asking me about connections between people in my military unit and Anonymous. They also asked about WikiLeaks”.
Later DeHart was transferred and kept in segregation at the Penobscot County jail in Bangor, Maine. Until his first hearing (Habeas Corpus hearing), he was incommunicado.
On August 9, 2010 DeHart was brought before U.S. Court Judge Margaret Kravchuk who branded his court appearance that day as “odd”. In the following days DeHart was kept in a cell not allowed food or water, and repeatedly interrogated. On August 18, 2010, DeHart signed consent forms (such as the permission for any FBI agent and “any Canadian law enforcement”, to record his phone calls with his old military colleagues) and authorized agents to assume his online identity, giving the FBI his aliases, and passwords to his e-mail accounts. Among the accounts was a Hushmail account in the name of “Fawkes”.
DeHart was then transferred to Tennessee, where he spent 21 months in jail, allegedly because of the child pornography charges against him. In May 2012, Judge Aleta Trauger who was allowed to read classified documents about DeHart and heard the evidence on the child pornography charges, ordered DeHart releasing on bail with a curfew and a monitoring bracelet, pending trial. Judge Trauger said in her ruling: “He thought that the search for child p was really a ruse to try to get the proof about his extracurricular national security issues. I found him very credible on that issue”. “Obviously, child pornography charges are serious offences,” she said. “I have learned several aspects of this case which, in the court’s mind, indicate the weight of the evidence is not as firm as I thought it was”.
In 2013 DeHart was confined to his parent’s home in Indiana. On April 2013, DeHart's father drove him to the border crossing between Minnesota and Fort Frances, Ontario. As they reached the CBSA, they provided documents to make an asylum claim in accordance with the UN Convention Against Torture. They also presented two encrypted computer thumb drives (that the FBI, in the raid of 2010, did not take because they were kept hidden) of DeHart’s, containing secrets on the hacktivist group Anonymous, his hidden server called The Shell, and his military unit. (…) The CBSA did not grant asylum because of the unresolved pornography charge and arrested DeHart declaring him a foreign national “engaging in act of espionage that is against Canada or that is contrary to Canada interest”. After six private detention reviews by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB), he was again ordered to remain in jail.
In August 2013 DeHart was released from jail ordered to remain under house arrest, in Brampton, Ontario, with a GPS tracking unit and a radio frequency monitor locked to his ankle. Because of the CBSA and the government of Canada concession that DeHart suffers from PTSD, he is allowed to leave his apartment for medical treatments and for legal appointments.
On April 22, 2014 under request by Brampton landlord, the DeHart moved to another apartment and though DeHart’s monitoring was in place, the following day, a CBSA officer and five policemen arrested DeHart for breaching his release terms. While in detention for pending his refugee hearing, he tried twice to commit suicide.
He was jailed in Lindsay, Ontario.
On October 21, 2014, DeHart was ordered to be deported from Canada.[14] On March 1, 2015, he was deported to the US. [15]
See also
References
- ^ Matt DeHart claims he's wanted for working with Anonymous National Post
- ^ a b Humphreys, Adrian (May 2014). "Hacker, Creeper, Soldier, Spy". Toronto: National Post.
- ^ Stuart, Hunter (September 23, 2013). "Matthew Paul DeHart, Self-Described Anonymous Member, Says Child Porn Charges Are Government Ruse". Huffington Post.
- ^ Quan, Douglas (September 11, 2013). "American seeks refuge in Canada claiming persecution because of hacker connections". Canada.com.
- ^ Humphreys, Adrian (June 6, 2014). "Alleged hacker Matt DeHart asks for mercy at his Canadian detention review hearing. He gets none". Toronto: National Post.
- ^ Humphreys, Adrian (August 16, 2014). "Group of Anonymous hacktivists in Toronto protest treatment of asylum seeker Matt DeHart". Toronto: National Post.
- ^ Harrison, Judy (August 11, 2010). "Child porn suspect collapses in court". Bangor Daily News.
- ^ [1]
- ^ "Hacker, creeper, soldier, spy", Adrian Humphreys, National Post, April 2014
- ^ US-Dissident DeHart: Vom Elitekämpfer zum Staatsfeind, Holger Stark, Spiegel Online, February 25, 2015
- ^ [2]
- ^ [3]
- ^ "Will Matt DeHart be the next victim of the war on leaks?", Joshua Kopstein, February 25, 2015, Al Jazeera America
- ^ "Alleged Anonymous hacker Matt DeHart ordered deported from Canada", Tristin Hopper and Adrian Humphreys, National Post, October 21, 2014
- ^ "Matt DeHart, the alleged Anonymous hacker, deported to U.S. after Canada refused to grant him asylum", Adrian Humphreys, March 1, 2015, National Post
Further reading
- Five-part feature on Matt DeHart's case by Adrian Humphreys, National Post, May 2014
- Matt DeHart: Grand Jury Indictment
- United States of America vs. Matthew DeHart, Criminal Complaint