3.Thomas Kiernan — Direct (Part 1)
1,307 linesDIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. HOWARD:
MR. HOWARD: Good morning.
THOMAS KIERNAN: Good morning.
MR. HOWARD: Who do you work for?
THOMAS KIERNAN: The FBI, the Federal Bureau of Investigations.
MR. HOWARD: And how long have you worked with the FBI?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Twenty-three years.
MR. HOWARD: And what is your position at the FBI?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I'm currently a computer scientist with the FBI.
MR. HOWARD: What are your duties and responsibilities as a computer scientist?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Sure. I collect, review and analyze digital evidence.
MR. HOWARD: Are you familiar with what a forensic image is?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I am.
MR. HOWARD: And what is a forensic image?
THOMAS KIERNAN: It's a image of a hard drive or a digital media that makes an exact duplicate of the original drive that you are looking at, so you're making a copy of someone else's drive basically.
MR. HOWARD: In your role as a computer scientist at the FBI, do you have experience in reviewing the forensic images of computers?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: In the course of your career, how many forensic images of computers would you say you have examined in total approximately?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Hundreds of computers that we have gone through.
(Continued on next page)
MR. HOWARD: Do you have any specialized training with computers?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes. I'm a FBI -- I am a CART technician, which is a Computer Analyst Response Team, which I have training in also.
MR. HOWARD: And what is your educational background?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I have a computer science degree from St. John's University.
MR. HOWARD: I am going to draw your attention to October 1, 2013.
THOMAS KIERNAN: Sure.
MR. HOWARD: Were you involved in an arrest that day?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I was.
MR. HOWARD: And whose arrest was that?
THOMAS KIERNAN: The defendant, Ross Ulbricht.
MR. HOWARD: Do you see that person in the courtroom today?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I do. He is at the second table wearing the pink-collared shirt.
MR. HOWARD: May the record please reflect that the witness has identified the defendant?
THE COURT: So reflected.
MR. HOWARD: Now, in what city did this arrest take place?
THOMAS KIERNAN: This was in San Francisco.
MR. HOWARD: And what part of day did this take place?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Afternoon, approximately 3:15.
MR. HOWARD: When did you first arrive in San Francisco for the arrest?
THOMAS KIERNAN: For the arrest, I was there two days prior to the arrest.
MR. HOWARD: And what were you involved in in the days leading up to the arrest?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I had helped out with some of the surveillance that was going on during that time period.
MR. HOWARD: And what was the initial plan for the defendant's arrest?
THOMAS KIERNAN: The initial arrest was going to be on October 2nd, which is at his residence, but it was on this -- it was geared to the 2nd of October.
MR. HOWARD: And did that plan, did it go as planned?
THOMAS KIERNAN: No, it did not.
MR. HOWARD: And why not?
THOMAS KIERNAN: We had the opportunity to arrest the defendant with his laptop and his laptop on at the time.
MR. HOWARD: And what was the importance of arresting the defendant with his laptop on?
THOMAS KIERNAN: So with the laptop on we can beat or get past any type of encryption problems that would arise on a laptop. Usually -- encryption is when you have your laptop, or a hard drive, and the data on top of it is in a format that is not humanly readable that we can't get to. So to get there with the laptop on and at a point where it is on, we were able to get the machine and pull up live data from the machine.
MR. HOWARD: Now, were there other people involved in the arrest team?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: Where was the arrest team deployed on October the 1st?
THOMAS KIERNAN: On the 1st we were situated all around the area at the time, all in a -- in plainclothes, just trying to blend in with the surroundings.
MR. HOWARD: And what location were you in? Where were you?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I was -- myself, I was across the street from the library, from a little cafe and back from the library spot, but right across the street from the library.
MR. HOWARD: And why were you in that specific location?
THOMAS KIERNAN: We had witnessed the defendant in that area before, a couple of days before that, when we were there doing surveillance. So we knew he was in that area, or we were hoping that he would come back to that area.
MR. HOWARD: Do you know where Mr. Ulbricht was living at the time?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes, I do.
MR. HOWARD: And how do you know that?
THOMAS KIERNAN: We had done surveillance in front of his residence.
MR. HOWARD: And approximately how close was his residence from the place where you were stationed near the public library?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Maybe a five-minute walk from his spot down to the cafe and the library.
MR. HOWARD: At some point did you learn that Mr. Ulbricht was approaching the area?
THOMAS KIERNAN: We did.
MR. HOWARD: Now, Ms. Rosen, could you please publish Government Exhibit 128C, which has already been admitted into evidence.
MR. HOWARD: Do you recognize what this photograph depicts?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I do.
MR. HOWARD: And what does it depict?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That is the area where we were actually sitting before we entered the library.
I could use my pointer, right?
MR. HOWARD: Go ahead, Mr. Kiernan.
THOMAS KIERNAN: Here we go. So this area here, this cafe area, we were directly across the street, on this side of the street, from there, just sitting on a bench, me and the UC at the time, Jared -- I can never pronounce his last name but it was Jared. The library was right over here, where we were waiting to enter into.
MR. HOWARD: Now, sorry, you were sitting with Special Agent Jared Der-Yeghiayan, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: Were there other agents involved, too?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Not where we were sitting but in the area, yes, there were other agents in that area.
MR. HOWARD: And they were also in plainclothes?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: So at some point did you observe the defendant when you were at this location?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I did. I did. I just saw him take a -- when he was walking on this side of the street, he took a quick peek in that little doorway there, which seemed like a coffee cafe, and then he just continued on past this area right into the library right there.
MR. HOWARD: Now, after you witnessed the defendant enter the library, did you see the undercover officer do anything?
THOMAS KIERNAN: He just opened up his laptop to start a session, I guess.
MR. HOWARD: And what was the plan for the undercover opening his laptop?
THOMAS KIERNAN: To try to get into a conversation with DPR.
MR. HOWARD: What did you do next?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That's when I left my area and entered into the library, just across the street.
MR. HOWARD: And once you entered the library, where did you go?
THOMAS KIERNAN: The library was two -- it was a couple, it was two floors -- well, the library itself, the entranceway and then I went up to the second floor, where the actual entrance to the main library section was.
MR. HOWARD: Now, I'm going to ask you to flip in the binder that is sitting in front of you to what's been marked for identification purposes as Government Exhibit 128G.
THOMAS KIERNAN: Got you.
MR. HOWARD: Do you recognize this?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I do.
MR. HOWARD: What is this exhibit?
THOMAS KIERNAN: This is a photograph of that second floor entrance into the library.
MR. HOWARD: Did you take this photograph?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I did not take this.
THE COURT: May I pause for one second? I think that my binders have taken a walk, and they will walk back.
(Pause)
THE COURT: OK. So what number are you on, Mr. Howard?
MR. HOWARD: 128G.
THE COURT: Thank you, sir. You may continue.
BY MR. HOWARD:
MR. HOWARD: Is it correct, you just testified that you did not personally take this photograph, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: No, I did not take this photo.
MR. HOWARD: But does this photograph fairly and accurately depict the area of the library that you just described?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes, it does.
MR. HOWARD: The government offers Government Exhibit 128G.
MR. DRATEL: I have no objection, your Honor.
THE COURT: Received.
(Government's Exhibit 128G received in evidence)
MR. HOWARD: Could you please publish it on the screen.
MR. HOWARD: So you described it as the area of the library that you first went to after you entered, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: Was there anyone else with you while you were at this location?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Not with me going in but inside there were some agents already stationed.
MR. HOWARD: Could you depict where in the photograph this was?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Sure. Right back in here, just behind this pole, basically in front of this little terminal there.
MR. HOWARD: Once you arrived at that location, did you meet with the other agents?
THOMAS KIERNAN: We did, yes.
MR. HOWARD: And what happened during that meeting?
THOMAS KIERNAN: During that -- it was a pretty quick meeting, but we were trying to come up with a way to have the defendant turn away from his laptop. So he was sitting inside. So we were trying get him -- a diversion. We were trying to create a diversion so we could grab the laptop, take it, and start processing it, start looking at it.
MR. HOWARD: This is to obtain the laptop in an unencrypted state, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct. Yes. Again, the goal was to get to the laptop in its unencrypted state. We wanted to look at that laptop.
MR. HOWARD: Did you have a search warrant for the defendant's laptop at the time?
THOMAS KIERNAN: We did.
MR. HOWARD: Can you please flip to what's been marked for identification purposes as 128H in your binder.
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes. OK.
MR. HOWARD: Do you recognize this exhibit?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I do.
MR. HOWARD: And what is it?
THOMAS KIERNAN: A picture internal of the library approximately where the defendant was sitting.
MR. HOWARD: Did you take this photograph?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I did not.
MR. HOWARD: Does the photograph fairly and accurately depict the area that you just testified about in the library?
THOMAS KIERNAN: It does.
MR. HOWARD: The government offers Government Exhibit 128H.
MR. DRATEL: No objection.
THE COURT: Received.
(Government's Exhibit 128H received in evidence)
BY MR. HOWARD:
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Kiernan, you described this as the area that you first observed the defendant in the library, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: It is, yes.
MR. HOWARD: Can you describe where in this photograph you observed the defendant?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Sure. I was situated to the left over here. You see this pole standing there? I was in that area behind the case of books or magazines in that area. About 20 feet away, something like that.
MR. HOWARD: And where was the defendant specifically located?
THOMAS KIERNAN: He was approximately in this area here, almost in this same spot as that gentleman in there, in that picture.
MR. HOWARD: What were you able to observe about the defendant before he was arrested?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Just that he was using his -- his laptop was on and he was using his machine, just sitting there.
MR. HOWARD: What did you see next?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I saw two agents come from this area here, walking this way. I mean, towards the windows, right, would be better, toward that "Science Fiction" sign there. And I witnessed them. They tried to do our plan that they were talking about.
So they get into a verbal dispute. They start, the male and the female agent, like a domestic dispute, and they started yelling at each other right behind the defendant's area.
MR. HOWARD: And so what happened after they started yelling behind the defendant?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Sure. The defendant, like anyone would do, would look like what's going on. And that's when the male agent reached, grabbed the laptop, pulled it over to the side. The defendant started to rise, as anyone would do. Then the female agent grabbed it from the male agent, and that's when I came from my position and took the laptop from the female agent.
MR. HOWARD: Your Honor, may I approach the witness?
THE COURT: You may.
MR. HOWARD: I just handed you what's premarked for identification purposes as Government Exhibit 200. Do you recognize this exhibit?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Can I open it?
MR. HOWARD: Go ahead.
(Pause)
THOMAS KIERNAN: Maybe I can't. It is not going back in the bag, that's for sure.
All right. Let's see. Got it. OK. Yes.
MR. HOWARD: Do you recognize this exhibit?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I do.
MR. HOWARD: And what is this exhibit?
THOMAS KIERNAN: This was the laptop taken from the defendant.
MR. HOWARD: And how do you recognize it?
THOMAS KIERNAN: From the serial number and bar code and the paper with it.
MR. HOWARD: The government offers Government Exhibit 200.
MR. DRATEL: No objection, your Honor.
THE COURT: Received.
(Government's Exhibit 200 received in evidence)
BY MR. HOWARD:
MR. HOWARD: What brand of laptop is this?
THOMAS KIERNAN: This is a Samsung 700Z.
MR. HOWARD: And when you say "700Z," what are you referring to?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That is the model number of the laptop.
MR. HOWARD: Now, what did you do with Mr. Ulbricht's laptop after you seized it?
THOMAS KIERNAN: After I grabbed it I went to the other side of the table, where the arrest was made, and started a triage on the laptop.
MR. HOWARD: So what is a triage?
THOMAS KIERNAN: A triage is, again, looking for if encryption is running on the machine. So I start looking for signs of that, and then I start taking pictures of what I'm doing at the time. It is just I'm going through the computer in as safe a way as possible to start collecting evidence from the machine.
MR. HOWARD: And why was it necessary to do this triage?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Again, the encryption is tough, it is tough to defeat. So the triage is, again, to make sure that I can start getting valuable evidence from the machine in its live state, while the machine is on.
MR. HOWARD: How can a laptop become locked or encrypted?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Sure. By the closing of the lid will usually enable encryption. Screen savers, little programs that lock it out. Things like that will enable encryption on the machine if it is running.
MR. HOWARD: Does every laptop have encryption running on it?
THOMAS KIERNAN: No, not every laptop.
MR. HOWARD: Did you extract any documents as part of the triage?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes, I did.
MR. HOWARD: And how did you do this?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I had a USB drive with me, a brand new USB drive that I plugged into the defendant's laptop and started what I could take documents from his current home directory folder, which is the directly that most of your documents remain in. That is the stuff you use most. That is where you put your documents.
MR. DRATEL: Objection.
THE COURT: All right. Well, the portion of the answer "stuff you use most" is struck but the remainder of the answer stays.
You may continue, Mr. Howard.
BY MR. HOWARD:
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Kiernan, what kind of operating system was the computer running?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Linux in a flavor called Ubuntu.
MR. HOWARD: What is an operating system?
THOMAS KIERNAN: It's the software that lets you interface with your computer. It lets a human actually interface with your machine so you can get to your files and your Web browsers and things like that.
MR. HOWARD: What are other popular kinds of operating systems?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Sure. You probably know Windows or Macintosh OS's. Those are other types of operating systems that are out there, popular ones.
MR. HOWARD: Do you have training in reviewing computers running the Linux Ubuntu system?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I do.
MR. HOWARD: Is the home directory you testified about part of the Linux Ubuntu system?
THOMAS KIERNAN: It is.
MR. HOWARD: And how many computers have you reviewed that have had the Linux Ubuntu system on it?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Hundreds of computers.
THE COURT: How do you spell the Ubuntu?
MR. HOWARD: I believe that is you U-b --
THOMAS KIERNAN: U-b-u-n-t-u.
THE COURT: All right. Thank you.
BY MR. HOWARD:
MR. HOWARD: And what is the significance of the home directory, that you testified about, on a Linux Ubuntu system?
THOMAS KIERNAN: It's the directory where you keep most of your files. That's the directory that holds your data. And it holds the user accounts is in the home directory of the Linux system.
MR. HOWARD: What is a user account?
THOMAS KIERNAN: A user account is an account that is created by usually the person setting up the laptop to give yourself access to the machine, to the parts of the machine that you would use. So it is that part of the machine.
MR. HOWARD: And how are user accounts labeled?
THOMAS KIERNAN: The name that you give it, the name that you send to that account.
MR. HOWARD: In other words, the user can choose any name they want, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct, yes.
MR. HOWARD: Now, what, if anything, did you do to document what you were doing while you were performing what you were calling the triage of the laptop?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Sure. I was taking pictures of what I was doing with a BlackBerry, my BlackBerry FBI-issued phone.
MR. HOWARD: And why were you using a BlackBerry?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Ah, that's what I had with me at the time. That's what I received.
MR. HOWARD: Now, if you could please flip in your binder to what has been marked for identification purposes as Government Exhibit 201A.
THOMAS KIERNAN: Sure.
(Pause)
MR. HOWARD: Do you recognize this exhibit?
THOMAS KIERNAN: One second. Sorry.
(Pause)
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes, I do.
MR. HOWARD: And what is this exhibit?
THOMAS KIERNAN: This is a photograph of the defendant's computer at the time of the arrest, or the time that I had it.
MR. HOWARD: Did you take this photograph?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes, I did.
MR. HOWARD: And how soon after obtaining the laptop did you take this picture?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Right after.
MR. HOWARD: The government offers Government Exhibit 201A.
MR. DRATEL: No objection.
THE COURT: Received.
(Government's Exhibit 201A received in evidence)
BY MR. HOWARD:
MR. HOWARD: So, Mr. Kiernan, is it your testimony that this is the first photograph you took of the defendant's laptop?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: Did you do anything to the laptop, click on any windows, do anything at all before you took this picture?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Ah, no. No.
MR. HOWARD: If we could please just zoom into this window right here, Ms. Rosen.
MR. HOWARD: Can you describe what this window contains?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Sure, except for that big flash I had there when I first started taking the pictures. That's the Pidgin chat client, the Pidgin chat program that allows communications between individuals, and this is a chat with the username Cirrus.
MR. HOWARD: Do you recognize the username Cirrus?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I do.
MR. HOWARD: And how do you recognize it?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That's the account that our undercover was using.
MR. HOWARD: Now, if you could, Ms. Rosen, if you could just zoom in on the upper left-hand corner of the screen.
MR. HOWARD: Here it says "Ubuntu desk-top." What does that mean?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That was the software -- the operating system that was running on the defendant's computer.
MR. HOWARD: Now, does Government Exhibit 201A indicate -- anywhere indicate the time that the photograph was taken?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes, it does, on the second page.
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, could we please flip to the second page and zoom in on the upper right-hand corner.
MR. HOWARD: Here it says, "Properties." What is the information that's depicted here?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Sure. That's metadata that comes with files. So the picture is part of your file that you look at. This metadata is sometimes -- not "sometimes," it is embedded within these files. So this is just the date and times of the times that I took the pictures.
MR. HOWARD: So let's first look down here at the bottom where it says "Camera Properties."
THOMAS KIERNAN: Sure.
MR. HOWARD: "Camera model: BlackBerry 9930."
What is BlackBerry 9930?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That is my phone.
MR. HOWARD: And below that it says, "Date Taken, October 1, 2013, 6:15:56 p.m."
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: What does that refer to?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That's the time I took the picture in Eastern Time.
MR. HOWARD: And why is it reflected in Eastern Time?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That is what my phone settings were at.
MR. HOWARD: And what time zone is San Francisco in?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Pacific.
MR. HOWARD: And at that time how many hours back was it?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Three.
MR. HOWARD: If you look up here under "Picture Properties," there is a line that says, "Modified: October 1, 2013, 3:15:56 p.m."
What does that reflect?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That the converted time from Eastern to PST, minus the three hours. We just took the three hours off. That is what it looks like.
MR. HOWARD: Now, Mr. Kiernan, could you just take a moment and flip through your binder of what's been marked for identification purposes as Government Exhibits 201B through 201G, and let me know when you are ready.
THOMAS KIERNAN: OK. B through G?
MR. HOWARD: B through G.
THOMAS KIERNAN: Got you.
(Pause)
MR. HOWARD: Sir, do you recognize what all of these exhibits are?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: What are they, generally?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Photos that I took of the defendant's laptop at the time of the arrest.
MR. HOWARD: Did you take these photographs?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I did, yes.
MR. HOWARD: Now, as with Government Exhibit 201A, is the time of each photo reflected in the metadata on the second page of each exhibit?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes, it is.
MR. HOWARD: And for each one under "camera properties," is the time reflected in Eastern Time rather than Pacific Time?
THOMAS KIERNAN: It is, yes.
MR. HOWARD: The government offers Government Exhibits 201B through 201G.
MR. DRATEL: No objection.
THE COURT: Received.
(Government's Exhibits 201B through G received in evidence)
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, could you please publish Government Exhibit 201C, please.
MR. HOWARD: Now, Mr. Kiernan, what time was this photograph taken local time?
THOMAS KIERNAN: 3:17 p.m.
MR. HOWARD: And earlier you testified that the defendant got arrested at about 3:15, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: About, yep.
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, if we could just zoom in on the top bar here, please.
MR. HOWARD: Here it says, "Tuesday, October 1, 3:17 p.m."
What does this mean?
THOMAS KIERNAN: The date and time that the computer had on it when it was running. So the time stamp of the computer.
MR. HOWARD: And right to the right here, there is the word "frosty" next to a little white picture. Now it is yellow after the highlighting.
THOMAS KIERNAN: That was the username that was logged in at the time.
MR. HOWARD: And is this the username that you were talking about before on the Ubuntu system?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes, the created username, correct.
MR. HOWARD: And who's username?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Frosty, the defendant. That's his username that he created for that.
MR. DRATEL: Objection.
MR. HOWARD: What user account was the defendant logged into at the time that you took this computer?
THOMAS KIERNAN: The Frosty account.
MR. HOWARD: Could you please zoom out, Ms. Rosen, and zoom in on this window right here.
MR. HOWARD: What is this window?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That is a picture of the active buddy list, again, from that Pidgin client that -- from the other pictures which were the actual conversations, there is a buddy list from that same program that shows you contacts that -- your contacts that you use on the chat.
MR. HOWARD: Right here, what is the first contact on the buddy list?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Cirrus.
MR. HOWARD: And the second one right under here?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Inigo.
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, could you please publish Government Exhibit 201D.
Now, if you could zoom in on this window that starts up here.
MR. HOWARD: What is this window on defendant's computer?
THOMAS KIERNAN: This is a browser window pulled up to the foreground. So it is a browser window of a website.
MR. HOWARD: And what kind of browser was this?
THOMAS KIERNAN: This was the Tor browser.
MR. HOWARD: If you could just look up here, it says, "Support Tor Browser" on the top.
What is a Tor browser, Mr. Kiernan?
THOMAS KIERNAN: It is a browser, the same as your regular browser, basically, except you are connecting through the Tor network to sites that aren't available to your regular browser. It is a program that allows you to view those things.
MR. HOWARD: Was this Tor browser running when you arrested -- sorry, when you seized the defendant's computer?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes, it was.
MR. HOWARD: Now, if you could just zoom in here on the little tab here.
Here it says "Support" and a little thing to the left of it. What is that?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That is the -- it is the support page of the Silk Road server, and to the left is the Silk Road icon, the logo associated with Silk Road, a man on a camel.
MR. HOWARD: And right here, this white box here, what is that white box?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That's the URL, the page that is actually visited on your browser that was present -- that it was looking at at the time.
MR. HOWARD: So turn to the first part of the address, silkroadvb5piz3r.onion, are you familiar with that address?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I am.
MR. HOWARD: And what is that address?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That is the address of the Silk Road server.
MR. HOWARD: And right here it says dot-onion. What does dot-onion mean?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Dot-onion is how you route to a -- or how you get to sites on Tor, dot-onion Tor sites, as opposed to the sites that you are usually used to going to, like a dot-com or dot-edu, not that you can't get to them through the Tor browser but the dot-onion is a special category on the Tor network that you can get to through the Tor browser.
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, could you please publish Government Exhibit 201G, please.
MR. HOWARD: And, Mr. Kiernan, what is this window here, the white window?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That is a picture, again, of the full buddy list that was running on the computer at the time.
MR. HOWARD: You had taken photographs by this point, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: At this point, yes, I was.
MR. HOWARD: What is the white window here?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes. Again, that is the buddy list from that Pidgin software.
MR. HOWARD: So, again, we have cirrus and inigo and also later on the list we have mg and smed?
THE COURT: Is that right?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That is correct, yes.
MR. HOWARD: Now, Ms. Rosen, could you please publish Government Exhibit 201J.
MR. HOWARD: And what is this window, Mr. Kiernan?
THOMAS KIERNAN: This was the bottom of that buddy list that you just saw.
MR. HOWARD: I direct your attention to the little icon here on the bottom right-hand corner. Do you recognize what that is?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I do. That's the logo associated with or the avatar associated with the user account Dread Pirate Roberts on the Silk Road site.
MR. HOWARD: Up here there is a little what appears to be some sort of stop sign or some sort of traffic sign?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yep.
MR. HOWARD: Then next to it is "dread@pl5mmj2ron" and I can't tell, that looks like h-u-t-y, a bunch of characters, dot-onion?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: Do you recognize what this is?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes. That's the account of the -- that is the Pidgin account to log into the Pidgin client.
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, could you please publish Government Exhibit 201D to the jury.
MR. HOWARD: Earlier you testified this is the Tor browser, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: What, if anything, did you do to look at what other Web pages had been visited previously by the user of this computer?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Sure. I used the Tor's -- the Tor's, the browser's back button to go back.
MR. HOWARD: Could you indicate where the back button is?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Sure. It's right under the word "Support" with the little icon and the arrow facing to the left.
MR. HOWARD: And what does clicking on the back button do?
THOMAS KIERNAN: It brings you to one page before the one that you are currently on. It brings you back one page in your browser.
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, could you please publish Government Exhibit 201K.
MR. HOWARD: And so what does this depict, Mr. Kiernan?
THOMAS KIERNAN: This is the result of clicking that back button, bringing you to the one page before.
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, if you just again zoom in on the URL bar at the top.
MR. HOWARD: So here at the beginning it says "silkroadvb5piz3r.onion." Is that the same Silk Road address you testified about earlier?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: Here at the end it says "slash support." What does that mean at the end of an address?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That is the page that you are actually on, the actual -- it is the page that you are on.
MR. HOWARD: And who picks the name of the page?
THOMAS KIERNAN: The person designing the website.
MR. HOWARD: Did you click on the back button again?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I did.
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, could you please publish Government Exhibit 201L.
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Kiernan, do you recognize what this depicts?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I do.
MR. HOWARD: And what is this?
THOMAS KIERNAN: This, again, is the previous page to the one we saw before. This is the mastermind page of the Silk Road site.
MR. HOWARD: And why do you call it the mastermind page?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I am just going by the name that it is called on the site itself.
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, could you zoom in on the top, please.
MR. HOWARD: So here at the end of the address it says slash mastermind; is that what you are referring to?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That is, yes.
MR. HOWARD: Again, this would have been chosen by the designer of the site, is that correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: If you could zoom out for a second? And zoom in on this fifth row right here.
MR. HOWARD: Here it says "cold BTC" and below it "144,336.40," correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, could you please publish Government Exhibit 201M, please.
MR. HOWARD: And what does Government Exhibit 201M depict?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Again, this is the -- hitting the previous button, this is one page before the mastermind page.
MR. HOWARD: So let's zoom in on the top of the URL bar on the top of the page, please, Ms. Rosen.
MR. HOWARD: And here at the beginning is the same Silk Road address that you testified about earlier?
THOMAS KIERNAN: It is, yes.
MR. HOWARD: And what is the name of this page?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Landing.
MR. HOWARD: And down here in this box, what does it say?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Dread Pirate Roberts.
MR. HOWARD: And what does this indicate?
THOMAS KIERNAN: This was the login name associated with -- the login name used to get to those other pages that you saw before, the mastermind, the support page, all of those pages there.
MR. HOWARD: Now, approximately how long did you spend with the laptop in the library performing this triage?
THOMAS KIERNAN: The whole time, for about three hours.
MR. HOWARD: What did you do with the laptop after you completed the triage?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I gave it over to RCFL, which is a computer team out in San Francisco. The agent's name was Beeson, Chris.
MR. HOWARD: So let's take a step back for a second.
After you were done with the laptop in the library, what did you do next with the laptop?
THOMAS KIERNAN: We transported it back to the defendant's residence.
MR. HOWARD: And at what point did you provide it to Special Agent Beeson?
THOMAS KIERNAN: After we were back at the residence, we gave it back to Special Agent Beeson. I gave it to Beeson.
MR. HOWARD: Did there later come a time that you had access to the contents of the laptop again?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: And how did that occur?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That occurred -- after they imaged the drive or made a duplicate of the drive, we got a copy -- we got that copy back to us in New York.
MR. HOWARD: And in what format did you get the copy of the hard drive?
THOMAS KIERNAN: It came on a hard drive. It was a digital -- a forensic image of the defendant's computer that came on a hard drive back to us.
MR. HOWARD: Your Honor, may I approach the witness?
THE COURT: You may.
(Handing)
THOMAS KIERNAN: Thank you.
MR. HOWARD: So I just handed you what's been marked for identification purposes as Government Exhibit 500.
Do you recognize this?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: And what is this?
THOMAS KIERNAN: This is the result of the images taken by Chris Beeson that we got back to us in New York.
MR. HOWARD: And how do you recognize it?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Again, by the serial number on it and the serial number bar codes that match on this.
MR. HOWARD: The government offers Government Exhibit 500.
MR. DRATEL: Your Honor, I think that has to be subject to connection.
THE COURT: Let me ask, that is the hard drive that you understand was provided to you from Beeson?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
THE COURT: All right.
All right. It is received.
(Government's Exhibit 500 received in evidence)
BY MR. HOWARD:
MR. HOWARD: Now, what did you do after obtaining this hard drive?
THOMAS KIERNAN: After obtaining this hard drive, I made a staging copy of it. So what I do is I take the drive from Beeson that has the image on it. I plug this into a write locker, just a device, a piece of hardware that connects to the hard drive. And I take the images that were there and I copied them to a drive, or a NAS drive that I have with me.
MR. HOWARD: So you create a staging -- what is a staging copy?
THOMAS KIERNAN: A staging copy. It is a copy that I can work on without working on this one.
MR. HOWARD: And you indicated that you plugged it into a write locker. What is a write locker?
THOMAS KIERNAN: A write locker just takes -- makes this so I cannot write anything to it. Even with the format it is in, the images -- I don't want to write anything to the hard drive, basically.
MR. HOWARD: Was the working copy the same as the original?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes, it was.
MR. HOWARD: And how do you know that?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I performed an MD5 Hash on my copy that I made. And an MD5 Hash is just a digital fingerprint of the files that I received. And I performed one on what I got from Beeson, and I do my own, just make sure that those match, and I know I'm working on a good copy of the data. That's all.
MR. HOWARD: So you are doing a comparison of the hash values to show that they match and they show that they are the same copy?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: Please flip to what has been marked as Government Exhibit 200A, please.
THOMAS KIERNAN: Sure. I am running out of room up here.
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Kiernan, would it be helpful if I remove the laptop?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Please. I don't want it to wind up on the floor.
MR. HOWARD: May I approach, your Honor?
THE COURT: You may.
(Pause)
MR. HOWARD: Do you recognize what Government Exhibit 200A is?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I do.
MR. HOWARD: And what is it?
THOMAS KIERNAN: A screenshot I took of the MD5 Hashes.
MR. HOWARD: You said you took this screenshot, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes. I'm sorry. A screenshot I took.
MR. HOWARD: The government offers Government Exhibit 200A.
MR. DRATEL: No objection.
THE COURT: Received.
(Government's Exhibit 200A received in evidence)
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, if you would publish 200A, please.
MR. HOWARD: So here it says, "MD5 Hash, Computed hash" and a long string of characters that start with a 1e61.
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: If you could zoom in on that.
MR. HOWARD: What is this?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That is the result of the mathematical -- the equation of the program run on the imaged drive that make that hash, make that value.
MR. HOWARD: This was the value that you compared with the value of the file from Special Agent Beeson?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct. Right.
THE COURT: Wait.
MR. HOWARD: Down here it says January 5, 2015.
THE COURT: Wait a second. I want to make sure that I understand what the two things are that are being compared.
So there is the hard drive that you received from Beeson?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Right, which had the -- I'm sorry.
THE COURT: Which had had the image?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Right. It had a hash on it, too, but it is the actual hash from the defendant's laptop when they made that image.
THE COURT: OK. So when there was an initial image made on the defendant's laptop that Mr. Howard just took back from you and on the hard drive on the laptop, did it have a hash there?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
THE COURT: Was there a hash there?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes. That is what I am comparing it to.
THE COURT: So you are measuring the hash on the laptop to the hash on the Beeson drive?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Right, that is coming back.
THE COURT: All right. I am with you now.
BY MR. DRATEL:
MR. HOWARD: To be clear, this hash, is this hash of the Beeson drive or it's a hash of the staging copy that you made?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Both, yeah. So when they perform the image, right, when they said sda4_crypt.dd, that is the name of the file that was made by Beeson from the laptop. All right? That gets put on the drive here, this one. And when I look at it, I compare that hash value with the one that is here, which is the image of the drive from the defendant.
THE COURT: I see.
THOMAS KIERNAN: That is all.
MR. HOWARD: Just real quickly, at the bottom here, on the bottom right, it says January 5, 2015.
THOMAS KIERNAN: Mm-hmm.
MR. HOWARD: That is the date that you took the screenshot?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: This was after you performed the analysis of the hard drive?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: Now, what would have happened if one file had gotten changed during your analysis of the laptop?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Those MD5s change. They would be different.
MR. HOWARD: They would no longer be a match?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Right. The fingerprints wouldn't match.
MR. HOWARD: So after you received the image and made a staging copy, what, if anything, did you do to analyze the contents of the laptop?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I mounted the image, the DD file, using a tool called FTK Imager.
MR. HOWARD: What does it mean to mount the image?
THOMAS KIERNAN: You see, it's one file right now. When you mount an image, when you -- you take that file and you put it back into the contents over there, the file system comes back up. So you can actually read what was on that drive at the time. You can read the files on it.
MR. HOWARD: And what kind of software did you use to read the files that were in the image?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That was the FTK Imager software.
MR. HOWARD: Do you have any training using FTK Imager?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: Approximately how many computers have you analyzed using FTK Imager?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Hundreds.
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Kiernan, if you could take a moment and flip in your binder to what has been marked for identification purposes as Government Exhibits 211 through 216.
MR. HOWARD: Do you recognize what these are?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: And what are they?
THOMAS KIERNAN: These are screenshots of FTK Imager and some of the results.
MR. HOWARD: Who took those screenshots?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I did.
MR. HOWARD: The government offers Government Exhibits 211 through 216.
MR. DRATEL: No objection.
THE COURT: Received.
(Government's Exhibits 211 through 216 received in evidence)
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, could you please publish Government Exhibit 211, and if you could zoom in on the left.
MR. HOWARD: What does this left -- upper left-hand corner window represent?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Sure. So that's the file structure from the defendant's laptop.
MR. HOWARD: Could we just zoom in on that window.
MR. HOWARD: Right here at the top it says "sda4_crypt.dd." What is that?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That is the file created during that image. That is the file that gets created during the imaging of the drive.
MR. HOWARD: And below here we have all of these little folders with names by them. What are these?
THOMAS KIERNAN: So that's your file structure, your directory, kind of like a filing cabinet that you have at your house where you put all your different files into them. So each drawer is a different folder. And then under that you could have more folders and so on and so on to get to --
MR. HOWARD: I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cut you off.
THOMAS KIERNAN: That's OK.
MR. HOWARD: If you could zoom in down here where the folder is labeled "home."
THOMAS KIERNAN: Sure.
MR. HOWARD: And "frosty." This is the home directly on Ubuntu Linux system that you testified about earlier?
THOMAS KIERNAN: It is.
MR. HOWARD: And what does the home directly contain on the Ubuntu Linux system?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That contains user accounts.
MR. HOWARD: How many user accounts did you find on the defendant's computer?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Just this one.
MR. HOWARD: What was the name of that account?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Frosty.
MR. HOWARD: Did you review the contents of files that you found on the defendant's computer?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I did.
MR. HOWARD: During your review of the defendant's laptop, did you find any photographs of the defendant?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I did.
MR. HOWARD: Can you please take a minute to look at what's been marked for identification purposes as Government Exhibit 273 in your binder.
THOMAS KIERNAN: Sure.
(Pause)
MR. HOWARD: Do you recognize what this is?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I do.
MR. HOWARD: And what is the exhibit?
THOMAS KIERNAN: It is a file found on the defendant's laptop.
MR. HOWARD: And how many pages is this exhibit?
THOMAS KIERNAN: It is two.
MR. HOWARD: What is the second page of the exhibit?
THOMAS KIERNAN: The second page contains the file structure again and some metadata associated with where I found the file.
MR. HOWARD: By the way, are there other files that you extracted from the laptop other than this?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes, there are.
MR. HOWARD: And for every file that you extracted, did you also include a screenshot of where it was located and its metadata, as you described?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I did.
MR. HOWARD: The government offers Government Exhibit 273.
MR. DRATEL: No objection.
THE COURT: Received.
(Government's Exhibit 273 received in evidence)
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, could you please publish Government Exhibit 273. Zoom in on the top.
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Kiernan, is this the contents of the file you just testified about?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes, it is.
MR. HOWARD: It says, "Ulbricht, Ross William." It is a passport.
Can we go to the second page, please.
Now, this is the screenshot from FTK Imager, is that correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: And so what is depicted along the very bottom? If you could zoom into this. What does "home/frosty/documents/ archive/documents/reference/ids.jpg mean?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That is the folder structure or where the file actually was contained on the drive, like what you saw before.
MR. HOWARD: Could you zoom out, Ms. Rosen.
MR. HOWARD: And what is this window right here on the lower left-hand corner?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That is the metadata or the data which is describing what that file actually is.
MR. HOWARD: Now, are you familiar with metadata on the Ubuntu Linux operating system?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I am.
MR. HOWARD: So, first, I want to draw your attention to the "Date Modified" field, January 5, 2007.
What does the date modified field mean?
THOMAS KIERNAN: The date that it was modified, or changed, or made a change to it.
MR. HOWARD: So how could, let's say, a document be modified?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Going into a document, adding something to a document, removing something from a document, that will change the date modified.
MR. HOWARD: So this represents the last date that the file was changed, is that correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: Right above that, we have a field called "Date Created." What does date created refer to?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That's the time or the date that the file was actually put on that machine or that volume, that computer.
MR. HOWARD: Does this field refer to the date that the file was created -- first created anywhere?
THOMAS KIERNAN: No, not a born date but when it is on that machine.
MR. HOWARD: So here to the right we see a date of May 8, 2012.
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: That is the date created, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: Now, in this instance the date created is after the date modified?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: So what does that indicate to you, Mr. Kiernan?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That the files were put there at a different time. That is all. They were probably copied over or moved over --
MR. DRATEL: Objection.
THOMAS KIERNAN: -- or backed up. They were copied over --
MR. DRATEL: Objection.
THE COURT: I will allow it.
THOMAS KIERNAN: They were just moved at a different time.
MR. HOWARD: Does this indicate to you whether or not this file was first created on this computer?
MR. DRATEL: Objection.
THE COURT: Based upon your experience, what does that information indicate to you?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That it was just on a different machine or a drive at a different time and put here later on.
MR. HOWARD: Now, this date created of May 8, 2012, is this the only file you found on defendant's computer with a date created of May 8, 2012, or were there others?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Oh, there were others. Sure.
MR. HOWARD: Approximately how many others?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Hundreds of them. I mean, there are others there. Probably when that user account was created on the machine.
MR. DRATEL: Objection.
THE COURT: Overruled.
MR. HOWARD: Based on your training and experience, in seeing that many -- that quantity of files with that same date created, what does that indicate to you?
MR. DRATEL: Objection.
THE COURT: I will allow it.
THOMAS KIERNAN: I'm sorry. Can you repeat that?
MR. HOWARD: From your training and experience --
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: -- based on seeing the large quantity of files with the same date created of May 8, 2012, what did that indicate to you?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yeah. The files were moved from either another computer or another piece of media to the machine for later on.
MR. HOWARD: What is the "date accessed" field? It says October 2, 2013.
THOMAS KIERNAN: Just when it was looked at or accessed, touched.
MR. HOWARD: That was the day after the defendant's arrest, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: And why would this date be after the defendant got arrested?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Because we were doing a live image. The machine is on. So all those files, you know, they unfortunately get -- not "unfortunately." They are just accessed during that time, during that imaging of the machine. The machine is on so we're not turning it off to take it so that gets changed.
MR. HOWARD: Does this metadata indicate whether or not the file was changed when it was accessed for the purpose of your image?
THOMAS KIERNAN: It does not.
MR. HOWARD: Does it indicate whether or not the file was changed when it was accessed for the purpose of the image?
MR. HOWARD: Was it changed?
THOMAS KIERNAN: No. The files weren't changed.
MR. HOWARD: So, Mr. Kiernan, if you could now flip to Government Exhibit 274 in your binder.
THOMAS KIERNAN: Sure.
MR. HOWARD: Do you recognize what this is?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I do.
MR. HOWARD: And what is it?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Again, a file taken from the defendant's laptop.
MR. HOWARD: And who took it from the defendant's laptop?
THOMAS KIERNAN: A file that I extracted from the defendant's laptop, yes.
MR. HOWARD: The government offers Government Exhibit 274.
MR. DRATEL: I have no objection.
THE COURT: Received.
(Government's Exhibit 274 received in evidence)
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, could you please publish it.
MR. HOWARD: Did you find any chat logs on the defendant's computer?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I did.
MR. HOWARD: And what is a chat log?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Depending -- it's a file that records or keeps the conversations between two people. Like if you use your phone, if you go back and check your text messages, the same type of deal. It just puts it into a file, depending on the client that you are using at the time on the machine.
MR. HOWARD: And what kind of chat program did you find on the defendant's computer?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I found Tor chat on the defendant's computer.
MR. HOWARD: If you could please publish Government Exhibit 215, which is already in evidence. And if we could zoom in on the left, upper left window.
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Kiernan, this is the directory structure of the computer again, is that correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes, it is.
MR. HOWARD: And if we could zoom in on this little area here.
MR. HOWARD: Here is a folder that says ".torchat," correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: What is that folder?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That is the full folder for Tor chat when you load -- when you install Tor chat on your computer.
MR. HOWARD: Now, Mr. Kiernan, you testified earlier that when you first got the defendant's computer, you saw a Pidgin chat program window open, is that correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That is correct.
MR. HOWARD: Is that a different program than Tor chat?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes, it is.
MR. HOWARD: Did you find the Pidgin program also installed on the defendant's computer?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I did.
MR. HOWARD: Now, Ms. Rosen, could you please publish 215 again. Sorry. I had one more question.
Could we just zoom in on the upper right window.
MR. HOWARD: What are these lists on the left side of the window?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That's the log files associated with Tor chat as it keeps the logs on your computer.
(Continued on next page)
MR. HOWARD: And if we can just zoom in on a couple of those. That's good. Here you can see there's a whole bunch of characters followed dot log. What does dot log mean?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Just the formality or the extension of the file that's there. It's just called dot log in this case.
MR. HOWARD: So Mr. Kiernan, what is Tor chat?
THOMAS KIERNAN: A program, again, to allow you to communicate with other people in a program. It -- it's person to -- it's communication between people on the Tor network as opposed to open network.
MR. HOWARD: Have you personally ever used Tor chat?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I have.
MR. HOWARD: Have you tested Tor chat?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I have.
MR. HOWARD: Have you saved the logs of Tor chats on your own computer?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I have.
MR. HOWARD: If you save a Tor chat log to your own computer, how is your part of the conversation labeled?
THOMAS KIERNAN: The username "myself."
MR. HOWARD: And if you save a log of a chat you have on your computer, how is the other side of the conversation labeled?
THOMAS KIERNAN: With the name given to that other user, your other buddy.
MR. HOWARD: And who gives that name to the other user?
THOMAS KIERNAN: The user of the computer. The user of the Tor chat program.
THE COURT: Why don't you ask the same question, Mr. Howard, in terms of "myself." I'm unclear whether it's a name you designate for yourself or whether it's an automatic name given.
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Kiernan, is "myself" something that you choose for yourself as a user of Tor chat, or is it automatically selected to you by the program?
THOMAS KIERNAN: The program gives you that user account, the username and the log as "myself."
MR. HOWARD: And the name of the other party in the conversation, is that automatically selected for you?
THOMAS KIERNAN: No. You can assign that a name.
MR. HOWARD: Could it be assigned anything the user wants?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: So, for example, if you're chatting with your mother, you can label it "mom" if you want, right?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct, because the usernames in Tor chat are long, tough-to-read names. You can see, as a matter of fact, from that log file it's the actual name of the user on there. So to make it human-readable, you give it an easier-to-use name like "mom."
MR. HOWARD: So if we could please look at Government Exhibit 222 in your binder, please. Do you recognize what this exhibit is?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I do.
MR. HOWARD: What is this exhibit?
THOMAS KIERNAN: This is a log file from that Tor chat directory.
MR. HOWARD: This is from the defendant's computer?
THOMAS KIERNAN: From the defendant's computer; yes.
MR. HOWARD: And did you extract this file?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I did.
MR. HOWARD: The government offers Government Exhibit 222.
MR. DRATEL: No objection.
THE COURT: Received.
(Government's Exhibit 222 received in evidence)
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, can you please publish Government Exhibit 222, please. Zoom in on the first few lines there.
MR. HOWARD: Is this what a Tor chat log looks like, Mr. Kiernan?
THOMAS KIERNAN: It is.
MR. HOWARD: So let me just describe the very top line it says "This log file is not signed and has no cogency of proof."
Are you familiar with what that is?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I am.
MR. HOWARD: What is that?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That's, again, a default setting when the log file starts getting created, it puts that in there.
MR. HOWARD: So in other words, all Tor chat log files automatically include that at the top, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: They'll put it in there, yes.
MR. HOWARD: And you testified that you tested and used Tor chat yourself, right?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I have.
MR. HOWARD: And you've saved your own logs, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I have.
MR. HOWARD: Have the logs been true and accurate copies of the conversations that you logged?
THOMAS KIERNAN: They have been, yes.
MR. HOWARD: Now, if we can just -- I'm going to direct you to the second line here where it says 2012-04-24, 17:06. What does that mean?
THOMAS KIERNAN: It's the date and time of the chat.
MR. HOWARD: So it's April 24, 2012, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: And what format is the time depicted in?
THOMAS KIERNAN: It's based on the 24-hour clock.
MR. HOWARD: So what time is that in time that we more commonly use?
THOMAS KIERNAN: 5:06.
MR. HOWARD: To the right of there, you see this sSh, it's a lower-case S, big S, little H. What is that?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That's the name given -- that's the name that was assigned to one of the chat participants.
MR. HOWARD: It's the other participant in the chat that was logged, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: And it says "greetings" to the right. What is that?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That's what was typed in, "Greetings."
MR. HOWARD: And the next line next to date and time it says "myself: hi there."
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: What is "myself"?
THOMAS KIERNAN: "Myself" is the user of the client software on the computer.
MR. HOWARD: The user who is logging the files on the computer, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: Now, Mr. Kiernan, can you please flip to what's been marked for identification purposes as Government Exhibit 222B in your binder. Do you recognize what this is?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I do.
MR. HOWARD: What is this?
THOMAS KIERNAN: An excerpt from the full chat log.
MR. HOWARD: Is that an excerpt of the Tor chat log we just looked at?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes, it is.
MR. HOWARD: Did you participate in the creation of this exhibit?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I did.
MR. HOWARD: Is this a true and accurate excerpt from the full Tor chat log?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes. they are. Yes.
MR. HOWARD: The government offers Exhibit 222B.
MR. DRATEL: No objection.
THE COURT: Received.
(Government's Exhibit 222B received in evidence)
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, can we publish this and zoom into the top.
MR. HOWARD: Right at the top it has 4XSB, a long list of characters, dot log. What does this refer to?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That's the log file this was found in. It's the user's Tor name.
MR. HOWARD: Is this the name of the file as it was stored on the defendant's computer?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: And here it says "page 1/5." What does page one of five refer to?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That's the -- "1" being the page that this was on and "5" is how many pages were in the whole chat.
MR. HOWARD: So this indicates, in other words, that this is the first page of the larger Tor chat file, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: And that the larger file had a total of five pages, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: So I'm going to read it right now.
"It's sSh: May I ask to whom I am speaking? A formality of course, myself DPR and you are.
SSh: This is squid."
Whose computer was this chat recovered from?
THOMAS KIERNAN: The defendant's.
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Kiernan, I want you to take your time and look through what's been marked in your exhibit binder as 222A all the way through 232E, and let me know when you're done. Look at them generally and let me know.
THOMAS KIERNAN: I'm sorry. 222A to?
MR. HOWARD: To 232E.
THOMAS KIERNAN: Okay.
MR. HOWARD: So do you recognize these exhibits?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I do.
MR. HOWARD: What are they?
THOMAS KIERNAN: All excerpts from the Tor chat logs that were found in the defendant's computer.
MR. HOWARD: And again, these are not full chat logs. They're excerpts, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: Did you participate in the creation of these exhibits?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: Are they true and accurate excerpts of the entire log files?
THOMAS KIERNAN: They are, yes.
MR. HOWARD: Does each also contain the file name of the full log file at the top like Government Exhibit 222B?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: And does each excerpt also indicate where in the larger Tor file -- the Tor chat log file it was located?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: The government offers Government Exhibits 222A, 2223, 2224, and 2225 and 225B, 2226A through 226I, 227A.
Apparently, I said four "2's" at one point when I should have only said three "2's."
Where was I?
THE COURT: 227A.
MR. HOWARD: Through 227H, 2228, 222 -- sorry. Just two "2's", 9A through 229E; 231A through 231C; and 232A through 232E. And that's it.
THE COURT: So no 228?
MR. HOWARD: All of them start with "22." Why don't we do it this way: So we have 2A, 3, 4, 5A and 5B, 6A through 6I, 7A through 7H, 8, 9A through 9E. Now, it's 231A through 231C and 232A through 232E and that should cover it.
THE COURT: All right.
MR. HOWARD: Just note that 229B was cut at the last second, so that's not one that should be included.
THE COURT: All right. Thank you.
Mr. Dratel.
MR. DRATEL: We had some prior objections which we repeat.
THE COURT: Yes.
MR. DRATEL: To the extent they weren't covered, the others, we make the same objections Vayner, 403. And because there has been some alteration of numbers, there have been some changes.
THE COURT: Understood. Those objections are noted. They're overruled. And those documents are received.
(Government's Exhibits 222A, 223, 224, 225A-225B received in evidence)
(Government's Exhibits 226A-226I, 227A-227H, 228 received in evidence)
(Government's Exhibits 229A-229E, 231A-231C, 232A-232E received in evidence)
MR. HOWARD: Thank you, your Honor.
MR. HOWARD: In your review of the defendant's laptop, did you discover files that appeared to be journal entries?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I did.
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Kiernan, can you please look in your binder what has been premarked for ID purposes as Government Exhibit 240A through 240D and 241.
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: Do you recognize these exhibits?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I do.
MR. HOWARD: And what are they?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Files I extracted from the defendant's laptop.
MR. HOWARD: The government offers Government Exhibits 240A through 240D and 241.
MR. DRATEL: The same prior objections.
THE COURT: All right. Those objections are noted, overruled and those documents are received.
(Government's Exhibits 240A-240D, 241 received in evidence)
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, can you please publish Government Exhibit 240A.
MR. HOWARD: What is the title of this file, Mr. Kiernan?
THOMAS KIERNAN: 2010.docx.
MR. HOWARD: And what is the date that this file was last changed as reflected in the meta data?
THOMAS KIERNAN: 2/27/2011.
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, can you please add the highlights to this document just for the ease of reading them in. I'm going to read the highlighted portions now. If we can zoom in at the top.
"2010. I started the year in the middle of my stint with Good Wagon Books. Donny and I had worked on it the last quarter of 2009 and we were trying to ramp up by hiring people to go door-to-door. It was a real struggle and by the end of our trial partnership, it was clear that we hadn't grown the business to the point that it made sense for me to stay on.
"I had to find a job quickly, so I turned to Craig's List and found American Journal Experts. For the next six months, I edited scientific papers written by foreigners. It sucked. The hours were flexible, but it drained me. I hated working for someone else and trading my time for money with no investment in myself."
Can we go to the next page, please.
"While all of this was happening, I began working on a project that had been in my mind for over a year. I was calling it Underground Brokers, but eventually settled on Silk Road. The idea was to create a website where people could buy anything anonymously, with no trail whatsoever that could that could lead back to them. I had been studying the technology for a while, but needed a business model and strategy. I finally decided that I would produce mushrooms so that I could list them on the site for cheap to get people interested. I worked my ass off setting up a lab in a cabin near Bastrop off the grid. In hindsight, this was a terrible idea and I would never repeat it, but I did it and produced several kilos of high quality shrooms. On the website side, I was struggling to figure out on my own how to set it up. Driving out to Bastrop, working on Good Wagon, and trying to keep up my relationship with Julia was taking all of my time. By the end of the year, I still didn't have a site up, let alone a server."
Ms. Rosen, can you zoom out to the next page, please.
"In 2011, I am creating a year of prosperity and power beyond what I have ever experienced before. Silk Road is going to become a phenomenon and at least one person will tell me about it, unknowing that I was its creator. Good Wagon Books will find its place and get to the point that it basically runs itself. Julia and I will be happy and living together. I have many friends I can count on who are powerful and connected."
Ms. Rosen, can you please publish Government Exhibit 240B.
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Kiernan, what is the name of this file?
THOMAS KIERNAN: 2010.ODT.
MR. HOWARD: And where was it located on the computer?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I'm sorry. 2011.ODT.
MR. HOWARD: And where in the defendant's computer was it located?
THOMAS KIERNAN: This was in his home/frosty/Documents/journal/2011 directory.
MR. HOWARD: And what was the date when this file was last changed?
THOMAS KIERNAN: 2/5/2012.
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, can you please add the highlights to this document as I'll read them, if you can just zoom in the top.
"2011. Still working on Good Wagon Books and Silk Road at the same time. Programming now. Patchwork php mysql. Don't know how to host my own site. Didn't know how to run bitcoind. Got the basics of my site written. Launched it on freedomhosting. Announced it on the bitcointalk forums. Only a few days after launch, I got my first sign-ups and then my first message. I was so excited I didn't know what to do with myself. Little by little, people signed up, and vendors signed up, and then it happened. My first order. I'll never forget it. The next couple of months, I sold about ten pounds of shrooms through my site. Some orders were as small as a gram and others were in the qp range. Before long, I completely sold out. Looking back on it, I maybe should have raised my prices more and stretched it out, but at least now I was all digital, no physical risk anymore. Before long, traffic started to build. People were taking notice, smart, interested people. Hackers. For the first several months, I handled all of the transactions by hand. When they came into my local bitcoin client, I matched them up with the amount of time" -- I'm sorry -- "with the amount and time of the purchase and did all of the necessary account adjustments. Between answering messages, processing transactions, and updating the codebase to fix the constant security holes, I had very little time left in the day, and I had a girlfriend at this time!"
I'm skipping ahead.
"So, while still manually processing transactions and responding to a bigger and bigger message load, I learned to use codeigniter and began rewriting the site. At some point around this time, I also learned how to host my own site and was on my own servers."
"Rewriting the site was the most stressful couple of months I've ever experienced. I worked all day everyday, still processing transactions by hand, dealing with scammers, answering messages, meeting new strange people through my site and getting to know them. When I finally got the site ready, there were several new features including a tumbler and automatic mated payment processing."
"AND in addition to these stressors, Silk Road got its first press, the infamous Gawker article. When you look at the historic #s, you can see right when it happened. A huge spike in signups, and the beginning of an upward trend in commerce that would continue until the time of this writing, and hopefully for much longer. There was really a smattering of press at this time including the local news in FL! Most interestingly, two U.S. senators came out against the site and against bitcoin. They made a big deal out of it and called for a shutdown of the site."
"Some major advances were price pegging, vendor ranking, a more sophisticated feedback system, buyer stats, transaction logging and building up the admin toolset. Most importantly, the market began its path to maturity. Vendors and buyers forged great relationships, more vendors came in to fill holes in the market, other completed and variety, customer service, and professionalism emerged. After making about $100k an up to a good 20-$25k monthly, I decided it was time to bring in some hired guns to help me take the site to the next level. This would prove to be the biggest challenge I ever faced. I actually got to see a fairly wide range of employee types. SYG, the schmoozer who winds up being a waste, DA, the model employee. Super enthusiastic, hard working and trainable. Then there was Utah, professional who does it for the money. Gets the job done, but his heart isn't always in it. First I put up an ad for a system administrator. I needed someone to help me take the back end to the next level in security. I had many candidates duke it out in the forum on many topics from os to isolation to software to security. In the end, I made what I thought was a wise decision."
"I was still working with SYG, so Utah was set to work on rewriting the site. Around this time, Variety Jones showed up. This was the biggest and strongest willed character I had met through the site thus far. He quickly proved to me that he had value by pointing out a major security hole in the site I was unaware of." "He convinced me of a server configuration paradigm that gave me the confidence to be the sole server administrator and not work with someone else at all. He has advised me on many technical aspect of what we are doing, helped me speed up the site and squeeze more out of my current servers. He also has helped me better interact with the community around Silk Road, delivering proclamations, handling troublesome characters, running a sale, changing my name, devising rules, and on and on. He also helped me get my head straight regarding legal protection, cover stories, devising a will, finding a successor and so on. He's been a real mentor. Shortly after I met VJ, I started looking for a right hand man, an administrative assistant of sorts. Someone to answer messages, manage the forum and Wiki, and eventually even dispute resolution. I found that man in Digital Alchemy, who was one of the original members of the site and had been modding the forums for pretty much the whole time. There were lots of applicants, but for some reason DA stuck out as promising, and he has turned out to be invaluable. He quickly learned how to respond to messages and keep things running smoothly. Before long he was managing the forums, the wiki, the messages, the resolution center, scam prevention, and odd jobs for me like mini-research projects and tedious tasks."
MR. HOWARD: Now, Mr. Kiernan, at the end of this excerpt, there was a reference to an employee named DA. Did you find any references to DA in the Tor chat log files?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I did, yes.
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, can you please publish Government Exhibit 232B, which has already been admitted into evidence. Zoom in on the top half, a half at a time.
"myself: Are you ready to become judge jury and executioner.
Da: Yep."
And then there's an emoticon.
"myself: OK, click resolutions, form your support panel.
Myself: This will pull up the most past-due resolution.
Da: It's loaded.
Myself: Top line is how many past due resolutions there are. It says "under review" to the users. The next six lines are the transaction details. Kill resolution link finalize the resolution without crediting buyer or seller. You rarely need to use this, but sometimes both parties are completely unresponsive and you need to clear it out of your queue."
By the way, I note this is a conversation from January 8, 2012. The conversation continues:
"myself: Left stats table is the buyer. Purchases are the number of purchases that were eventually finalized and not canceled and doesn't count open orders. Refund rate is the total money returned to the buyer from the resolution center divided by the total money spent. And the time-frames are the stats from the past 30 days, 90 days, and the life of the buyer's account. Keep notes of what these numbers mean so you can review them if you forget."
Ms. Rosen, can you please publish Government Exhibit 232A, which has already been admitted into evidence.
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Kiernan, at the top it says here pages "148-149 out of 257"?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: Does 257 refer to the total number of pages in the full Tor chat log?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes, it does.
MR. HOWARD: So now I'm going to read dated March 14, 2012.
"myself: Do you make purchases with a DigitalALCH account.
Da: [...] No, not for a while. I had at one point but only to way out there drop location. States away :)"
Emoticon.
Da: I use the KindestDaze generally.
Myself: That's good. Your name is getting higher profile on the forums and we wouldn't want anyone with your address from past orders to compromise you.
We might want to construct a new identity for you though.
Da: Say that I'm quitting. Yea?
Myself: Maybe, or just disappear. Let's think on it for a few days.
Da: IRL or online?
Myself: No, just online. My concern is that LE will see that DA is a player at Silk Road by your forum presence and then track down who you bought from and sold to under that name and then find you irl.
Da: Damn. I really like the DigitalALCH moniker. It really fit me. Oh, well freedom is better than prison."
Emoticon.
"myself: Yep. I got to protect my assets too.
Da: Do you mean me? Or outside assets.
Myself: You."
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, can you please publish Government Exhibit 222A, which has already been admitted into evidence.
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Kiernan, this is page one of a Tor chat log chat that's a total of 16 pages, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: It's dated April 20 -- the first excerpt is dated April 20, 2012, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: "sSh: I have the forum to manage and the profile updates review. Is there anything else you'd like me to get doing, or shall I refer to DA for such business.
Myself: Normally DA, but since he is out of commission, he can't manage it.
Myself: That's fine for now. Once we get you trained on support, you'll have plenty to do before he's recovered."
It picks up again on April 21, 2012, correct, Mr. Kiernan?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes, it does.
MR. HOWARD: "Myself: OK, go to .onion/support and tell me what you see.
SSh: I see an entire screen of new options! Many radio boxes with various labels.
Myself: Perfect. I'll give you a little tour. New vendors, you are familiar with. Click messages. The number next to it is the number of unread messages for SR support and vendor support.
Vendor messages go to the front of the queue. It's just like the bulk reply view in the main messages area, but it pulls up something like 75 messages at a time and the options to the right of the message are a little different.
SSh: All right. I've got it loaded. It seems that quite a few people need assistance today.
Myself: Actually the only difference is the forward to DPR box. If this is checked it forwards all unread messages from the user to me."
And once again, the next section starts on April 21, 2012, right?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: "myself: We already gave him his seller status back, so just tell him to change it.
We should have told him to change it before we made him a seller again.
But I don't want to go back and forth taking and giving.
SSh: Okay then. Should I put in a direct message, or add it to the support message on the list page.
Myself: Just add it to the message since we haven't sent them off yet.
SSh: How's this sound: Your Vendor Status has been restored. Please change your profile to comply with the seller's guide. Best of fortune regarding your business here on the Silk Road.
Myself: That's good, but give him a warning too. Something like.
Please read the seller's guide very carefully. If we find you out of compliance again, your selling privileges will be permanently removed."
Ms. Rosen, can you please publish Government Exhibit 240C, which is already in evidence.
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Kiernan, what is the name of this file?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Daily.ODT.
MR. HOWARD: And where was it located on the defendant's computer?
THOMAS KIERNAN: This was under the home/frosty/documents/journal/2011Q4/December/week 4 directory.
MR. HOWARD: And does the meta data indicate the date on which the file was last saved?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes. 12/29/2011.
MR. HOWARD: "12/29/2011 chatted with VJ again today. Him coming onto the scene has reinspired me and given me direction on the SR project. He has helped me see a larger vision. A brand that people can come to trust and rally behind. Silk Road chat, Silk Road exchange, Silk Road credit union, Silk Road market, Silk Road everything! And it's been amazing just talking to a guy who is so intelligent and in the same boat as me, to a certain degree at least. So, today we talked mostly about the exchange, what to charge, boundary conditions, etc. Then I went for a surf with Billy Becket. Caught a couple of good waves, chatted with him took some wipe outs and went in. Soon after, I ran around the city with Ashley and Kelly. We drank some beer, walked around the city and botanical gardens. I then went out with Jessica. Our conversation was somewhat deep. I felt compelled to reveal myself to her. It was terrible. I told her I have secrets. She already knows I work with bitcoin which is also terrible. I'm so stupid. Everyone knows I am working on a bitcoin exchange. I always thought honesty was the best policy and now I didn't know what to do. I should have just told everyone I am a freelance programmer or something, but I had to tell half truths. It felt wrong to lie completely so I tried to tell the truth without revealing the bad part, but now I am in a jam. Everyone knows too much. Dammit."
Mr. Kiernan, during this excerpt, there was a reference to an employee named VJ?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: Did you find any references to VJ in any Tor chats?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I did, yes.
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, can you please publish Government Exhibit 226G, which has already been admitted into evidence.
THE COURT: Just for your planning purposes, we'll end in about three minutes for lunch.
MR. HOWARD: Maybe it makes sense to do this exhibit and then take the break.
THE COURT: That's fine.
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Kiernan, was this another Tor -- this is an excerpt of another Tor chat log recovered from the defendant's computer?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes, it is.
MR. HOWARD: And up here it says "page 312 of 1,096." Does that reflect that there were 1,096 pages in the full chat log?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes, it does.
MR. HOWARD: And this takes place on January 15, 2012, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: "VJ." Emoticon or some sort of symbols. "Kicks self for assuming. Should have asked for the code long ago. Just didn't see the need. Mark it down as a learning experience for me as well.
Myself: This whole thing has been on a wing and a prayer. Besides basic php and html I've learned everything on the fly.
Vj: Well, I'm glad I didn't go for that nap, this was much more rewarding.
Vj: And you've done a damn fine job but you're becoming more of a target for hackers and better ones as time goes by.
Myself: I hadn't opened a Linux terminal until I left freedom hosting a month after the site launched.
Vj: Just thank FSM that they didn't start on you earlier.
Myself: FSM?
Vj: #Diety.
Myself: Ahh.
Vj: Flying Spag.
Myself: I've been incredibly blessed.
Vj: I have a lot of admiration for the big brain on you.
I don't know two other people that could have done it.
Myself: I was a hairs breath from going to jail before the site even launched for growing shrooms."
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Kiernan, all of these chat logs that we have reviewed, whose computer were they recovered from?
THOMAS KIERNAN: The defendant's.
THE COURT: Ladies and gentlemen, let's take our lunch break now. We'll resume at 2:00. I want to remind you not to talk to anybody, including each other about anything having to do with this case. Thank you.
(Jury excused)
(Continued on next page)
(In open court; jury not present)
THE COURT: Mr. Kiernan, you can take a break. We're going to pick up again at 2:00.
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
(Witness temporarily excused)
THE COURT: Let's all be seated. I just had two things: One, Mr. Dratel. You had asked for the hard drive to be received subject to connection. I thought that I heard enough for it to be received, but if you perceive by who is going to testify, if anything occurs that undoes that, then obviously we'll take that into consideration, but it did appear to me there was enough to get it authenticated.
MR. DRATEL: That's the reason why it's sort of the cart before the horse to a certain extent.
THE COURT: I understand.
MR. TURNER: We'll complete the chain with the next witness.
THE COURT: Thank you.
Then there were the series of exhibits with the 22s that we had, all of which were subject to various objections, including some that weren't noted on the pretrial order because they came in afterwards. I just wanted to make it clear the nature of the Court's rulings. The objections were, among others, the Vayner objection. The Court does believe that given the testimony of this witness, that there is sufficient grounds for authenticity.
In terms of it not being part of the charged conduct, that's really a relevance objection, and the Court finds that these are directly relevant to a number of issues in the case.
In terms of 403, the Court does not find that these are substantially outweighed by the danger of unfair prejudice or misleading the jury or wasting time; indeed, they are evidence which is necessarily to the government's case in terms of the theories that they have posited and not unduly prejudicial, so the Court did allow those, and all of those really fall under the same rationale.
Was there anything that you folks wanted to raise before we took our own break?
MR. TURNER: No, your Honor.
MR. DRATEL: No, your Honor.
THE COURT: Thank you. I do have one matter at 1:00. Oh, I don't. It's been taken off-calendar. I don't have a matter at 1:00, so you folks are welcome to keep all of your things there as you see fit.
Thank you. We'll return at 2:00.
(Continued on next page)
AFTERNOON SESSION 2:10 p.m.
(In open court; jury present)
THE COURT: Let us all be seated.
Mr. Howard, you may proceed, sir.
MR. HOWARD: Thank you, your Honor.
THOMAS KIERNAN, resumed.
DIRECT EXAMINATION CONTINUED BY MR. HOWARD:
MR. HOWARD: Good afternoon, Mr. Kiernan.
THOMAS KIERNAN: Good afternoon.
MR. HOWARD: So in the morning, you testified that it took approximately three hours to do the triage of the laptop, right?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That's correct.
MR. HOWARD: Again, what were you trying to do with the laptop triage?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Preserve evidence and not let the laptop get into a state of encryption.
MR. HOWARD: And following the triage, you provided the laptop to Special Agent Beeson?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I did.
MR. HOWARD: And approximately how long were you performing the triage in the library itself?
THOMAS KIERNAN: In the library? About an hour or so.
MR. HOWARD: And what happened after you were finished in the library?
THOMAS KIERNAN: We took the laptop and I carried it and transported it to the defendant's residence.
MR. HOWARD: And how did you transport it there?
THOMAS KIERNAN: We had a van or we had a car outside.
MR. HOWARD: Did you drive?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I did not drive, no.
MR. HOWARD: And what, if anything, did you do while you were in the car with the laptop?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Just ensured that the laptop stood on. I didn't want the laptop to turn off during that time.
MR. HOWARD: And what did you do after you arrived in the defendant's residence?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I continued triage, kept the laptop running and then waited for Special Agent Beeson to show up to give it to him.
(Continued on next page)
MR. HOWARD: Now, Ms. Rosen, could we please publish Government Exhibit 222G again for just a quick moment.
Sorry, I meant 226G. Pardon me.
MR. HOWARD: So, Mr. Kiernan, this was the excerpt that we read before we took the break for lunch, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: Right here at the top it indicates it is page 312 out of 1096, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: It does, yes.
MR. HOWARD: Were there other chat excerpts that were taken from this 1096 page file involving VJ?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes, there was.
MR. HOWARD: So at this point, Ms. Rosen, if you could please publish Government Exhibit 226F, please.
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Kiernan, this is page 964 of the 1096-page chat log, right?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: This conversation took place on June 1, 2012.
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: "Vj: Also, Variety Jones is dead, poor fella. No more seed biz for him.
"Myself: :(
"Myself: you goin by cimon now?
"Cimon: I was keeping that going as a way to get btc legally in the UK, but I'm leaving the UK, and the legality elsewhere means it's best I shut it down.
"Cimon: I have no idea what i'm going by now, dammit!
"Myself: well I just changed you from vj to cimon on torchat.
"Myself: so yer cimon.
"Cimon: there ya go.
"Cimon: and that's how changes are made.
"Cimon: cimon it is."
Now, Mr. Kiernan -- actually, Ms. Rosen could you put that back up for a second.
So, Mr. Kiernan, up here at the top, we have the name "VJ," correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: And who names the other side of a Tor chat that's logged on a one zone computer?
THOMAS KIERNAN: The user of that computer.
MR. HOWARD: And so down here at 5:53 p.m., you see "cimon"?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: Is that a different user than VJ?
THOMAS KIERNAN: A different username.
MR. HOWARD: Right, but is it the same person in this chat?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: What appears to have happened?
THOMAS KIERNAN: The associated name given by the user of the computer, the defendant, changed it to Cimon.
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, could you please publish Government Exhibit 227B, which has already been admitted into evidence, and zoom in, please.
MR. HOWARD: This is on August 31, 2012, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: "Cimon: Hey, could you scratch together a little org chart for me, so I know who's supposed to be doing what, on the forums and support?
"Myself: sure
"Myself: support
"Me
"Indica|Sativa
"SquidShepherd
"Forum
"Admins
"Me
"Indica|Sativa
"Mods
"SquidShepherd
"Limetless
"Nomad bloodbath
"Guru
"Myself: Squid talks to indi, indi talks to me. very occasionally Squid and I will talk."
Ms. Rosen, could you please publish Government Exhibit 227A, which has already been admitted into evidence.
And this chat occurred on October 24, 2012, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: "Myself: DA and squid both went awol
"Myself: squid said his comp died and is waiting on a replacement, but that was about 5 days ago now
"Myself: DA is gone for good
"Cimon:" expletive, "I haven't seen DA onlne since we talked, what happened with him?
Myself: got a new guy on who seems good and am looking for another
"Myself: he slowly flaked out. the last I heard he had a family emergency to rush off to and didn't know when he'd be back
"Myself: right now I'm spending about an hour a day on resolutions and inigo (new guy) is chipping away at the messages
"Myself: I tried recruiting from bitcointalk.org
"Myself: but I may just dip into the local community
"Cimon: dude, really?
"Myself: well?
"Myself: working for a criminal enterprise isn't exactly attractive
"Myself: to everyone
"Cimon: What were you paying squid?
"Myself: $900/week
"Cimon: What are the major issues CSRs deal with now?
"Myself: the toughest stuff is keeping up with the vendors and knowing when to demote them
"Cimon: not including resolutions
"Myself: that ties into the resolutions
"Myself: besides that, answering messages is pretty trivial, just time-consuming
"Cimon: how many vendors get demoted, and how many permanently?
"Myself: messages, resolution, vendor quality control
"Myself: 1-3 per week
"Cimon: what are the issues, just non-delivery?
"Myself: it varies
"Myself: just a sec
"Myself: faking feedback, going around escrow, loan scamming, exchange scamming, fake product..."
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, could you please publish Government Exhibit 240D, which is already in evidence.
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Kiernan, what was the name of this file as it was saved on the defendant's computer?
THOMAS KIERNAN: 240D? Excuse me. "Daily.odd."
MR. HOWARD: Where was it located on the defendant's computer?
THOMAS KIERNAN: This is the "home/frosty/documents/journal/2012/Q1/January/ week one" folder.
MR. HOWARD: And what was the date that this file was last changed, according to the metadata?
THOMAS KIERNAN: 1/1/2012.
MR. HOWARD: "January 1st, 2012
"Well, I'm choosing to write a journal for 2012. I imagine that some day I may have a story written about my life, and it would be good to have a detailed account of it. I did some work in the morning, can't remember now exactly what it was, but it wasn't long before I was responding to text messages and making plans to hang out on the beach. It was a holiday for everyone, so the beach was as packed as I've ever seen it, a teeming mass of humanity, helicopters flying overhead, waves crashing, a real spectacle. I was offered a ticket to a warehouse party by Nicole, but just couldn't bring myself to accept. I just was not in the partying mood. George also invited me to join him camping for 2-3 nights. I wanted to go, but the swell is low and it's just too much time away from Silk Road, and there is so much to do before the rents get here, and before I leave for Thailand. I need to get DigitalAlch set up handling the resolutions, and it just seems like Variety Jones gives my broad sweeping tasks on a daily basis. Emma, Jessica, Cally, Kim, Tim and a couple others, Mike, were all on the beach with me. Playing paddle ball and soaking up the sun. I've been thinking a bunch about what is next for me. I like my little life here in Bondi, but what if I love Thailand, or want to go on even further? I don't want to go backwards, and while I could see a lot more in Australia, I'm not even taking the opportunities that are coming up as it is. I need to find a place I can work from cheap and off the beaten path."
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, could you please publish Government Exhibit 225A, which has already been admitted into evidence.
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Kiernan, this is page 2 of the 15-page chat log, is that correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: "Myself: go here
"Myself: http://silkroadvb5piz3r.onion/support
"Myself: let me know when you are there
"Scout: just waiting for tor … okay, i'm there and it's saying 'no access'
"Myself: you are signed in with scout?
"Scout: yes
"Myself: do you know how to figure out your account id?
"Scout: i did many months ago. lol. remind me?
"Scout: oh i found it
"Myself: what is it?
"Scout: 77594f7023
"Myself: try again
"Myself: refresh
"Scout: okay, it worked - i'm in.
"Myself: cool
"Myself: it's kind of a mess
"Myself: but once you learn the tools, it's not so bad."
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, could you please publish that again, and can you zoom in on the first three lines of the chat and put it at the top of the screen, please.
And you could please publish 201K on the bottom of the screen, please, and zoom in on the URL bar.
MR. HOWARD: So, Mr. Kiernan, here you see during the chat "myself" says "http" and then an address. Do you recognize that address?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: And is that the same address that you saw in -- on the Tor browser that was running on the defendant's computer?
THOMAS KIERNAN: It is, yes.
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, could you please publish Government Exhibit 225B, which has already been admitted into evidence.
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Kiernan, this chat is on January 26, 2013, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: "Myself: so, im down a set of hands as of 12 hours ago
"Myself: now would be a great time for you to come on board if you are still interested
"Myself: or do you still have reservations?
"Scout: the only reservation i have is about the safety of being part of the staff. safety from legal issues, that is. having a hell of a time getting past that worry.
"Myself: the way i got over it is by looking at the risk/reward
"Myself: if you look closely at the risk part of it
"Myself: you can break it down into 2 parts
"Myself: chances of getting caught, and what will happen if you get caught
"Scout: right - and i have no idea what the answer is to either of those hypotheticals
Myself: I'm not 100% about the what will happen part. It's not like there have been cases in the past like ours. But when you look at the chance of getting caught part, it's incredibly small
"Myself: put yourself in the shoes of a prosecutor trying to build a case against you
"Myself: what evidence could they pin on you?
"Myself: there is nothing on your laptop for them to use, if you obscure your bitcoins propperly, there is no way for them to trace them back to me. Realistically, the only way for them to prove anything would be for them to watch you log in and do your work.
"Scout: right. which, as i understand it, they could.
"Myself: this is just a realization I've come to after doing this for almost 2 years
"Myself: sure, someone could stand behind you without you realizing it
"Myself: we are definiely on the cutting edge, the fringe. I'm not sure how else to put it, but the biggest con about this work is not the risk of going to jail or having your life disrupted
"Myself: it's getting used to and living with that possibility no matter how remote
"Myself: and keeping your work a secret."
Ms. Rosen, could you please publish Government Exhibit 241.
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Kiernan, what is the name of this file as stated on the defendant's computer?
THOMAS KIERNAN: "Log.text."
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, could you just add the highlights to the portions that we will read for now.
MR. HOWARD: And, Mr. Kiernan, the first entry on the top of the first page is labeled March 20, 2013, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct, yes.
MR. HOWARD: "Someone posing as me managed to con 38 vendors out of 2 btc each with a fake message about a new silk road posted about cartel formation and not mitigating vendor roundtable leaks. Worked on database error handling in CI."
"4/9/2013: Ssbd considering joining my staff.
"04/10/2013: Some vendors using the hedge in a falling market to profit off of me by buying from themselves. turned of access log pruning so I can investigate later. Market crashed today. Being blackmailed again. Someone says they have my ID, but hasn't proven it."
"4/11/2013: Set up tor relays. Asked scout to go through all images on site looking for quickbuy scam remnants. Cimon told me of a possible ddos attack through tor and how to mitigate against it. Guy blackmailing saying he has my id is bogus."
"4/13/2013: Inigo is in the hospital, so I covered his shift today. Zeroed everything and made changes to the site in about 5 hours."
"4/14/2013: Did support. inigo returned. Started rewritting orders->buyer_cancel, been getting error reports about it."
"5/1/2013: Symm starts working support today. Scout takes over forum support."
"5/3/2013: Helping smed fight off attacker. site is mostly down. I'm sick. Leaked IP of webserver to public and had to redeploy/shred. Promoted gramgreen to mod, now named libertas."
MR. HOWARD: And now, Ms. Rosen, could you actually just stay on the next-to-last page of this exhibit and just focus on the very, very bottom, the last entry.
MR. HOWARD: What is the date of the last entry in this log file?
THOMAS KIERNAN: 9/30/2013.
MR. HOWARD: What does the metadata reflect about the date that this file was last changed?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That's not on my copy I have here.
MR. HOWARD: Do you want to go to the next page. Can we zoom in on the bottom left-hand window here.
MR. HOWARD: And what does the metadata, Mr. Kiernan, indicate about the date that this file was last changed?
THOMAS KIERNAN: 10/1/2013.
MR. HOWARD: Now, Mr. Kiernan, could you flip in your binder to what's been marked for identification purposes as Government Exhibit 242.
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: What is this exhibit?
THOMAS KIERNAN: A file that I exported from the defendant's laptop.
MR. HOWARD: What was the name of the file?
THOMAS KIERNAN: "Weekly_report1-4-13.txt."
MR. HOWARD: Where was the file located on the computer?
THOMAS KIERNAN: This is from the home/frosty/backup/reference/reports folder.
MR. HOWARD: On what date was -- according to the metadata, on what date was this file saved to the defendant's hard drive?
THOMAS KIERNAN: 1/5/2013.
MR. HOWARD: The government offers Government Exhibit 242 into evidence.
MR. DRATEL: The same objections, your Honor.
THE COURT: All right. Those objections are overruled. GX242 is received.
(Government's Exhibit 242 received in evidence)
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, could you just please add the highlights. Just go to the very top, including the title.
MR. HOWARD: "Weekly Report 1-4-2013.
"I. Important
"A.) Still getting dozens of users who have fallen for the fake SR phishing sites."
Zoom out. At the bottom:
"Demoted: NorCal420HookUp
"Reason: blatant ooe deals, he even had a listing for ooe deals so he could get feedback."
Would you go to the last page of the metadata, and could we focus in on the left bottom corner.
Mr. Kiernan, what is indicated about the date -- where does it indicate when this file was saved from the defendant's computer?
THOMAS KIERNAN: 1/5/2013.
MR. HOWARD: Where on the file is it? Can you just point with your laser pointer?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Somebody took my laser pointer. The "Date Created" entry, right there.
MR. HOWARD: And does the file indicate when the file was last edited?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: And what date was that?
THOMAS KIERNAN: 1/5/2013.
MR. HOWARD: Now, Mr. Kiernan, was this the only report of this format that you found on the defendant's computer, or did you find other similar ones?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I found similar ones.
MR. HOWARD: And where were they located on the defendant's computer?
THOMAS KIERNAN: In that same directory.
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, can we zoom out on this file and look at the top right-hand corner.
MR. HOWARD: Is this the folder in which you found these similar reports?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: Do the other reports similarly have dates in the title?
THOMAS KIERNAN: They do, yes.
MR. HOWARD: Did the dates correspond to the dates within the documents?
THOMAS KIERNAN: They did, yes.
MR. HOWARD: And are the dates modified generally consistent with the dates in the titles and in the documents?
THOMAS KIERNAN: They are, yes.
MR. HOWARD: If you could zoom a little further, Ms. Rosen, just the ones that are labeled "weekly report," from here to here.
MR. HOWARD: So we have weekly report 11-3-12, 11-12-12. We have 1-25-13 at the bottom.
If you would scroll down.
(Pause)
MR. HOWARD: We have some dated in February and March of 2013, isn't that correct, Mr. Kiernan?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That is correct, yes.
MR. HOWARD: In your review of defendant's laptop, did you find any copies of individuals belonging -- sorry, identification documents belonging to other individuals?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I did, yes.
MR. HOWARD: Could you please flip in your binder to what's been marked as government -- sorry, actually, Ms. Rosen, could you publish Government Exhibit 216, which has already been admitted into evidence.
Do you recognize what this depicts, Mr. Kiernan?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I do. It's the directories where I found those files.
MR. HOWARD: And what is -- Ms. Rosen, could we just zoom in on the path name down here.
What is the name of the folder that you found these ID's in?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Sure. The home/frosty/backup/reference directory.
MR. HOWARD: Could we zoom back out, Ms. Rosen, and zoom in on the upper right-hand corner of the screen.
MR. HOWARD: What does this depict, Mr. Kiernan?
THOMAS KIERNAN: This is just a file listing of everything that was in that directory, the directory I just spoke of.
MR. HOWARD: Here we have files that are labeled inigo.jpg.gpg, symm.tar.gz.gpg, libertas.jpg.gpg, cirrus.jpg.gpg and then another file pics.tar.gz.gpg. Are you familiar with files with the extension ."gpg"?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I am, yes.
MR. HOWARD: What kind of files are those?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Those are encrypted files.
MR. HOWARD: Were you able to access the contents of those encrypted files?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I was, yes.
MR. HOWARD: How were you able to do that?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I used PGP to unencrypt them. I found a password on the defendant's laptop that I tried to put in and was able to recover those files.
MR. HOWARD: So, Mr. Kiernan, would you please flip to what has been marked as Government Exhibit 256 in your binder, please.
THOMAS KIERNAN: Sure. OK.
MR. HOWARD: Do you recognize this exhibit?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I do.
MR. HOWARD: What is it?
THOMAS KIERNAN: It's the unencrypted file that I found in that directory structure.
MR. HOWARD: This is after you used the password you found on the defendant's computer to successfully decrypt the files?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes, this was after.
MR. HOWARD: What is the file name?
THOMAS KIERNAN: This was "inigo.jpg.gpg."
MR. HOWARD: And this file was located in the directory that we were just looking at?
THOMAS KIERNAN: In the IDs directry, yes.
MR. HOWARD: The government offers Government Exhibit 256.
MR. DRATEL: No objection.
THE COURT: Received.
(Government's Exhibit 256 received in evidence)
BY MR. HOWARD:
MR. HOWARD: Here you can see it is a Virginia driver's license with the name Andrew Michael Jones, with an address and other personal identifiers, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That is correct, yes.
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, could you please -- I'm sorry, what was the file name again? What was the name of the file?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Inigo.jpg.gpg.
MR. HOWARD: Now, Mr. Kiernan, in reviewing the Tor chats on the defendant's computer, did you find any chat logs involving communications with anyone identified as Inigo?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I did, yes.
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, could you please publish Government Exhibit 229A, which has already been admitted into evidence.
MR. HOWARD: And this is dated October 17, 2012, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That is correct, yes.
MR. HOWARD: "PatHenry: I got that DL scanned for you
"Myself: hi
"Myself: send it over
"PatHenry: let me know if you got it
"Myself: handsome devil
"Myself: is your address the same?
"PatHenry: :)
"PatHenry: why thank you
"PatHenry: yes for now
"PatHenry: I will be moving in the next few months to northern virginia
"PatHenry: where im originally from
"Myself: ok
"Myself: I'm just getting your permissions set up so you can access the support panel
"PatHenry: cool. I log into the main site for that correct?
"Myself: how was doing your assignment?
"Myself: yes, login as inigo and I'll give you the url in a sec
"PatHenry: squid gave me the support link, just let me know when I have access
"Myself: is the page loading for you?
"Myself: a bunch of boxes with forms in them
"PatHenry: it just said no access but I havent tried again since giving you my user id
"Myself: try again
"PatHenry: trying now
"PatHenry: okay im in
"PatHenry: thanks
"Myself: cool, I'll let squid take over. don't touch anything you haven't been fully trained on, and take lots of notes, don't trust your memory!
"PatHenry: yes sir
"PatHenry: notebook handy.
"PatHenry: thanks again sir :)
"Myself: you bet :)"
Mr. Kiernan, the next part of this file starts on October 17, 2012, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: And in this excerpt we have the user "myself" and the user "inigo," correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: Were the prior excerpts taken from the same file?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: And the prior excerpts involve PatHenry and myself, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That's correct.
MR. HOWARD: So what does this indicate that this name is now Inigo?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Just that that buddy list that we talked about before, the contact list had been changed by the defendant.
MR. HOWARD: And this chat box, the next excerpt is from October 17, 2012, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct, yes.
MR. HOWARD: "Myself: How's your first day going?
"Inigo: Tor has been giving me such a headache."
The next excerpt is on October 21, 2012, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: "Myself: CSR = customer support rep
"Inigo: how many of us are there?
"Myself: right now just you and squid.
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, could you please publish Government Exhibit 229C, which has already been admitted into evidence.
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Kiernan, is this another chat with Inigo from the same log file?
THOMAS KIERNAN: It is, yes.
MR. HOWARD: And is this dated November 5, 2012?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: "Inigo: So uhh we have a vendor selling cyanide.
"myself: Link please
"inigo: Getting it now."
Then Inigo sends a link: "http://silkroadvb5piz3r.onion," and then a lot more text.
"myself: was it reported, or did you stumble on it?
"inigo: it was reported
"inigo: not sure where we stand on this, hes not listing it as a poison, but its only the most well known assasination and suicide poison out there
"inigo: lol
"inigo: at the same time, fentanyl has been used to assasinate people too, but we allow that to be sold for recreational use
"inigo: but this isnt a drug
"inigo: its tricky
"myself: cyanide has a bad reputation
"myself: as you say
"myself: the vendor lists a bunch of legit uses
"myself: and there are plenty of poisions you can get off the shelf
"inigo: very true
"myself: some of the drugs we allow are poisons in certain dosages
"inigo: so we're going to allow this?
"myself: it's bad for image/pr
"myself: just brainstorming with ya
"inigo: ah ok
"inigo: yeah it deff is
"inigo: i almost want to order some haha :X
"inigo: just to keep on hand
"myself: I think we'll allow it
"inigo: ok
"inigo: i kind of like the idea of allowing all kinds of industrial chemicals, whatever they may be used for
"myself: it's a substance
"myself: and we want to err on the side of not restricting things
"inigo: absolutely
"inigo: this is the black market after all :)
"myself: it is, and we are bringing order and civility to it."
Ms. Rosen, could you please publish Government Exhibit 223, which has already been admitted into evidence.
Mr. Kiernan, this is from a different log file, correct, than the last one we read?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes, it is. Yes.
MR. HOWARD: And this chat occurred on October 25, 2012?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: "Cp: do you need to see my id?
"Myself: yes
"Cp: or can i just tell you my name? like i did a few months ago
"Cp: yea, I can do that, ill have to get brave enough to do so, lol
"Myself: I'll need your id with current address. It will be stored encrypted
"Myself: and I will probably never need to decrypt
"Cp: so, I guess ill just have to trust you on that
"Cp: thats a big trust
"Myself: Yea, that's true."
Mr. Kiernan, the next section starts on October 25, 2012, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: It does, yes.
MR. HOWARD: Up here, the entire chat log that this was taken from was 259 pages, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: "Myself: you'll need to keep notes all week and then write a report
"Myself: at the end of each week
"Myself: so that's the only thing you'll keep local
"Myself: that's a bit incriminating
"Cp: okay, I have a true cryptd hd"
Now, Mr. Kiernan, in your role as a computer scientist, have you encountered something called TrueCrypt?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I have, yes.
MR. HOWARD: What is TrueCrypt?
THOMAS KIERNAN: TrueCrypt is a piece of software that enables people to encrypt or basically take your files, put them into a safe type of deal, and so other people can't access them, basically.
MR. HOWARD: Now, Mr. Kiernan, the next portion of the chat is on October 26, 2012, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: "Cp: what will be my main responsibilities?
"Myself: at first, answering support messages.
"Myself: We get 100 - 200 per day
"cp: are those just from vendors? or are they from buyers as well?
"Myself: both
"cp: will I answer directly to you? or is there someone in between?
"myself: you will talk to me and inigo
"myself: did you come up with a new name for yourself?
"cp: havent really thought about that yet
"myself: I'll be introducing you to inigo shortly
"cp: okay, any names that you like?
"myself: it's up to you
"cp: ill think of one shortly
"myself: how about pokerface
"cp: lol
"cp: thats a great one
"myself: or holdem
"cp: i like holdem too
"cp: or fullhouse
"cp: fluh
"cp: flush
"myself: flush?
"cp: its a poker hand
"myself: yea, is that what you'd like to be called?
"cp: full house, flush, straight
"cp: I like flush
"cp: how is my identity protected
"cp: thinking of worst case scenario --
"cp: of course
"myself: well, the only record I'll have of it is your scanned photo id, which I will encrypt and store on my laptop where I use whole disk encryption on a hidden OS volume
"cp: okay, I think i already have my driverslicense here on my computer
"cp: i had to scan it a year ago
"cp: so, that should be easy
"myself: is the address the same? I'm going to send you a letter to confirm
"cp: yes it is
"cp: Also, are you the only person that knows all the employees?
"myself: Yes, no one knows anyone else
"cp: Good."
Mr. Kiernan, the next part of the chat or the next excerpt starts on November 4, 2012, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct, it does.
MR. HOWARD: "Flush: was my salary of 1200 that you paid me last friday was that for this week?
"Myself: your pay is $900/wk
"Flush: 900 i mean
"Myself: friday's pay is for the preceeding week."
Mr. Kiernan, the next part starts at November 7, 2012 at 11:44 a.m., correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: "flush: i had a few people letting me know that someone is selling cyanide
"Myself: yea, we're allowing it
"Flush: do we allow that?
"Flush: okay
"Myself: what do you think
"Myself: ?
"Flush: cyanide can be used for other purposes
"Flush: than nafarious ones
"Flush: its actually a blood pressure medication
"Flush: but its very dangeous
"Flush: and there are other purposes for it as well... its very popular for poisoning."
Mr. Kiernan, the next excerpt is from November 8, 2012, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: That is from the same chat log?
THOMAS KIERNAN: The same log, yes.
MR. HOWARD: "Myself: if you find yourself idle while I'm gone, I would like you to do some recon on the competition. see what's out there in terms of alternatives to Silk Road. what are they doing better than us. how big are they. read up on BMRs forum and site and see what they are up to for me
"Flush: thats funny, I had planned on looking into BMR."
Mr. Kiernan, the next chat is from page 81 of 259 of the same chat log?
THOMAS KIERNAN: The same log, yes.
MR. HOWARD: November 22, 2012?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: "Flush: got a ? for you.. How much are we growing each month? Just out of curiosity..
"Myself: hmm
"Myself: lemme pull up the latest
"Myself: looks like around 15%
"Flush: wow, thats huge
"Myself: that # is confidential fyi
"Flush: and its the darknet
"Flush: understood
"Myself: dude, we're selling drugs
"Myself: there is nothing to compare this to
"Myself: or course this last month the data is quite skewed. There is a massive tank in sales on the chart. should snap back though."
Mr. Kiernan, the next excerpt is on December 11, 2012, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: "Myself: where I think we are lacking is in quality control. We don't have the tools built and I am sure there we can improve there. I'm talking about making sure vendors are complying with the rules"
Mr. Kiernan, the next section is from December 22, 2012, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That is correct.
MR. HOWARD: "flush: selling stolen credit cards is vioalation right?
"Myself: yes
"Flush: k."
"flush: also accepting moneypak instead of bitcoins
"flush: right?
"myself: yes, that would be going around escrow.
The next section is five days later, on December 27, 2012, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: "myself: you're in charge of vendor support for now, and inigo is in charge of customer support. Also, I want you to go back through all of the vendors you demoted and give them a second chance. Send them a message like this:
"We'd like to give you a second chance to get your account back in good standing. This will be your last warning. If you disregard the Seller's Guide again, your vending priviledges will be lost permanently. To bring your account back into good standing, you must pay for the commissions you should have paid on all of your out of escrow transactions to date. It is your responsibility to determine how much this comes to. If you low-ball it, we will investigate and permanently demote your account. If anything you should include a little extra as an apology and show of good will. Send this money to 'SR Quality Control' via your account page. Message me when this is done."
Mr. Kiernan, this next excerpt is from December 31, 2012, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes, it is.
MR. HOWARD: That's page 190 of the 259-page Tor chat log, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: "Myself: one more thing. We have investigated your account have found that you have done many out of escrow deals, meaning you take the coind directly to by pass SR fees. This is in violation of the Seller's Guide and your vendor agreement. Your account has been suspended.
"We'd like to give you a second chance to get your account back in good standing. This will be your last warning. If you disregard the Seller's Guide again, your vending priviledges will be lost permanently.
"Flush: yea, thats a good one, ill replace the one that i have with this one."
Mr. Kiernan, can you please flip to what has been premarked as Government Exhibit 255 in your binder.
(Pause)
MR. HOWARD: Do you recognize this exhibit?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes, I do.
MR. HOWARD: And what is it?
THOMAS KIERNAN: A file pulled off of the defendant's laptop.
MR. HOWARD: What is the file name?
THOMAS KIERNAN: To do underscore weekly.
MR. HOWARD: And what does the metadata reflect about the date that this file was saved to the defendant's computer?
THOMAS KIERNAN: 10/1/2013.
MR. HOWARD: Would you please publish -- I'm sorry. The government offers Government Exhibit 255.
MR. DRATEL: The same objection as previously.
THE COURT: All right. The objection is overruled. GX255 is received.
(Government's Exhibit 255 received in evidence)
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, could you please zoom in on the very top section here.
You see here: "Pay employees.
"inigo - $1500
"libertas - $1500
"batman73 - $1000 // ssbd
"cirrus - $1000
"smedley - $2500
"spock8642 - $500 // drx."
Would you zoom out, Ms. Rosen.
Ms. Rosen, could you please publish Government Exhibit 229E, which has already been admitted into evidence.
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Kiernan, is this a chat log excerpt dated October 19, 2012?
THOMAS KIERNAN: It is, yes.
MR. HOWARD: "Inigo: another question. do you recommend that i wash my btc from you through bitcoin fog? or are they already mixed sufficiently that I can send them to Mt. Gox to exchange? Also, should I even use Mt. Gox? Or should I be converting them more anonymously? I was thinking maybe one of those prepaid VISA cards that you can load with bitcoin
"Myself: I would avoid mtgox if possible. I wouldn't worry about bitcoin fog unless you are trying to move a large amount.
"Inigo: ok
"Myself: read up on the bitcoin wiki for alternatives
"Inigo: k
"Myself: you could also hit up the exchangers on sr."
Now, Mr. Kiernan, in your review of the defendant's laptop, did you discover any files that appeared to be an expense report?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I did, yes.
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Kiernan, could you please flip in your binder to what has been marked for identification purposes as Government Exhibits 250.
THE COURT: Two-five-zero?
MR. HOWARD: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: Do you recognize this exhibit?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I do.
MR. HOWARD: What is it?
THOMAS KIERNAN: A file extracted from the defendant's laptop.
MR. HOWARD: What was the name of the file?
THOMAS KIERNAN: SR underscore accounting.ods.
MR. HOWARD: And what type of file is it?
THOMAS KIERNAN: It seems to be -- or it is a spreadsheet.
MR. HOWARD: The government offers Government Exhibit 250.
MR. DRATEL: The same objection, your Honor.
THE COURT: All right. There wasn't an objection on the pretrial order but we'll talk about that at the break.
GX250 is received.
(Government's Exhibit 250 received in evidence)
BY MR. HOWARD:
MR. HOWARD: So, Mr. Kiernan, focusing on the top "sr_accounting.ods" -- Ms. Rosen, could you just zoom in on that. I am having trouble seeing it myself -- what does that refer to?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That is the file name.
MR. HOWARD: And who picks the name of the file?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Whoever created it.
MR. HOWARD: And what are the columns in this chart?
THOMAS KIERNAN: "Date, expense, total expense, revenue, total_revenue, total" and "notes" are the columns.
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Kiernan, now, are the rows in this chart in chronological order?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes, they are.
MR. HOWARD: And what is the first -- the first row here, what is the first date?
THOMAS KIERNAN: 7/17/2010.
MR. HOWARD: July 17th, 2010?
THOMAS KIERNAN: July 17th, 2010.
MR. HOWARD: How many pages does the spreadsheet go?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Eight pages.
MR. HOWARD: And what is the date of the last entry in the spreadsheet?
THOMAS KIERNAN: 7/3/2013.
MR. HOWARD: And what does the metadata in the file indicate about the last date that this file was changed?
THOMAS KIERNAN: 7/3/2013.
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, if you could please go back to the first page of the exhibit and add the highlights. Would you zoom in on them so we could read off a couple.
The first page, July 18, 2010, under the "expense" column, it is $25. "Notes" column says "lab clothes, carry over from fall 2009."
Underneath that there is July 18, 2010. And in the "Expense" column it is $31. In the "Notes" column, "Petri dishes, carry over from fall 2009."
Further down the page, we have July 26, 2010 and "Expense" of $80, and the "Notes" say "Pressure cooker."
Down here, October 15, 2010, $33 expense. The notes say "humidifier."
Ms. Rosen, actually, can you go to the May 2012.
MR. HOWARD: Do you see here -- this one isn't highlighted, but April 28, 2012, $1,150 and the notes say "laptop," correct, Mr. Kiernan?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes. It does, yes.
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, can you move up to the top of the page.
MR. HOWARD: Here we have February 21, 2012, an expense listed of $132 for "server rent," correct, Mr. Kiernan?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That's correct.
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Kiernan, was this the only reference to server rent in this chart or are there others?
THOMAS KIERNAN: There are others.
MR. HOWARD: Below that there is a date, March 2, 2012. And in the "Income" column, $65,933, and under "Notes," "commissions," correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That's correct.
MR. HOWARD: Is this the only reference to commissions in this chart or are there others?
THOMAS KIERNAN: There are others.
MR. HOWARD: Down here we have March 10, 2012. "Expense" of $3,200, and the "notes" say "payroll," correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That's correct.
MR. HOWARD: Is this the only reference to payroll in this chart or are there others?
THOMAS KIERNAN: There are others.
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, could we now publish Government Exhibit 226C, please.
Actually, there is just one more thing on the last one, pardon me, 250. On that page with the highlights, please. Can you zoom in on the last highlighted row.
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Kiernan, here it says May 11, 2012, a $4,000 listing in the "Expense" column, and the notes say "420 grand prize," correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That's correct.
MR. HOWARD: Now, in your review of the Tor chat logs, did you find any references around this date to a 420 sale?
THOMAS KIERNAN: I did, yes.
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, could you please now publish Government Exhibit 226C, which has already been admitted into evidence.
MR. HOWARD: Now, Mr. Kiernan, this is, again, pages 575 to 576 of a 1096 page chat log, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That is right, yes.
MR. HOWARD: This conversation starts on March 23, 2012?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: "Myself: here's a rough draft for ya. Roll up a doobie and put your party hat on because the biggest stoner holiday is just around the corner, and we've got alot of ganja to deliver! We're pulling out all the stops to celebrate 420 this year. Starting at 4:20 pm on 4/20/2012, we'll be giving away 420 prizes every 420 seconds! WOO!!! Gift cards, badass consumer electronics, real gangsta shit! And to top it all off, we're sending one lucky buyer on a dream vacation with all the trimmings!!! The buzz around this is going to be HUGE!"
Now, Mr. Kiernan, this picks up and this is from the same Tor chat log, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: The same log, yes.
MR. HOWARD: Pages 576 to 577 of 1096 pages?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That is correct.
MR. HOWARD: And it is on March 23, 2012, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: "vj: hmm - I wuz thinkin' dat we'd mebbe not go commission free for this one
"Myself: really?
"Vj: mebbe 1/2? on 'em?
"Vj: I'd like to think that we can bring more to the party than just dropped commissions. We're filling the prize barell already.
"Myself: nah, it's just 3 days!
"Vj: and a mil in sales
"Vj: But ok, this time. But seriously, read the announcement, and you'll see it doesn't lose much if you drop that one fragment on comission free ;)
"Myself: we'll be doing a mil in sales every week at full commission before long
"Myself: I think it's leading by example for the vendors. they will be more generous if we are
"Vj: true. There is that, and no one will have a klew what the sale totals are.
"Myself: and we're selling drugs here, first one's free little jonny! damn that sounds aweful
"Vj: ha!!! Let's give away a couple of playground sets, with swings and slides, just to complete the picture.
"Myself: sponge bob canoe and life size my little pony with every hash purchase of 50 btc or more!"
Mr. Kiernan, now, this continues -- this is from the same Tor chat log, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: The same log, yes.
MR. HOWARD: This is pages 917 to 918 of a 1096-page chat log, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That is correct.
MR. HOWARD: And it starts: "vj: Dude, I'm worried about our winner.
"Myself: whasamatta
"Vj: He's trying to dry out
"Vj: Heroin
"Vj: it's not working.
"Vj: and I think his recent influx of cash didn't help
"Myself: oh geez
"Myself: fuck, what are we doing
"Vj: Yeah, he told me some time ago he was trying to quit, but SR made it kinda tough
"Vj: So I've been doing sessions with him, giving him someone to talk to
"Myself: do you think he can't make the trip?
"Vj: I dunno, I'm sure he's gonna run out of spending money early, that's for sure.
"Vj: Now, his friend coming from Aus doesn't imbibe, so I'm hoping he'll be a good influence.
"Vj: I'm just worried that it's not the kinda place you wanna get caught trying to score H, or posessing it.
"Myself: what does he want to do?
"Vj: Oh, he's all gung ho to go, it's me that's worried ;)
"Vj: We'll go ahead as planned, the situation was just getting to me, so I'm spreading around the Dread
"Vj: so to speak ;)
"Myself: shoulda thought more carefully about dropping $4k on an addict
"Myself: maybe our next prize will be 3 months in rehab."
Mr. Kiernan, could you please flip to what's been marked for identification purposes as Government Exhibit 251 in your binder.
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
(Pause)
MR. HOWARD: What was the name of this file?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Networthcalculator.ods.
MR. HOWARD: And what was the date of this file -- according to the metadata, what was the date that this file was first saved on the defendant's computer?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Umm, let's see. 6/17/2012.
MR. HOWARD: And what was the date that it was last edited?
THOMAS KIERNAN: 12/2/2012.
MR. HOWARD: What kind of file is this?
THOMAS KIERNAN: A spreadsheet.
MR. HOWARD: The government offers Government Exhibit 251.
MR. DRATEL: Objection, your Honor. Vayner and hearsay.
THE COURT: All right. There weren't any objections noted in the Pretrial Order, but we'll talk about that at the break.
GX251 is received.
(Government's Exhibit 251 received in evidence)
THE COURT: The objections are overruled.
MR. HOWARD: So, Ms. Rosen, could you please zoom in on the columns from here to the first black line.
MR. HOWARD: So the columns here, Mr. Kiernan, are "Date," "Liquid Assets," "Hard Assets," "Total Debt," "Net Liquid," "Net Worth," and "Notes," correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: And here it says, "August 06." Net worth is listed at 821, and "Notes" say "started at PSU," correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That's correct.
MR. HOWARD: And here we have May 07. The net worth is listed as 13809.78, with a note saying "Just before buying house," correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: January 11 -- we'll skip one -- it says -- under the "Net Worth" column, it is 29,539, and the note says "start as CEO of Good Wagon."
THOMAS KIERNAN: That's correct, yes.
MR. HOWARD: April 2011, net worth is listed here under that column as 29948, and the notes column says "launch sr," correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That's correct.
MR. HOWARD: Let's skip down all the way to September 11, this one. Net worth -- under the net worth column, it says "100992." Notes column says "hire syg and h7"?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That's right, yes.
MR. HOWARD: December 11, the first one, under the net worth column, "238645," "fire syg"?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: Jan 12, under the net worth column, it says 68647, and the notes say "bitcoin theft," correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That is correct, yes.
MR. HOWARD: And in June 2012, or June-12, under the net worth column, it says "14238400"?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: And what was the date that this file was last saved?
THOMAS KIERNAN: 12/2/2012.
MR. HOWARD: Could you zoom out, please.
And now zoom into this column right here in the light blue.
MR. HOWARD: The columns are titled "Hard assets inventory" and "value (USD)," correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: And the first row says "sr inc" under "Hard assets inventory," correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: What is the number under the value column listed next to "sr inc"?
THOMAS KIERNAN: 104 million.
MR. HOWARD: The next one down here says "Samsung 700z?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: And the value is listed as $800, right?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That's right, yes.
MR. HOWARD: What was the model and brand of the defendant's laptop?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Samsung 700z.
MR. HOWARD: And down here there is a section entitled "Bitcoins," correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Correct.
MR. HOWARD: And there seems to be a number of entries under there with various values, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: And, Mr. Kiernan, what was the title of this spreadsheet?
THOMAS KIERNAN: "Networthcalculator.ods."
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, could we just go back to the left side real fast.
MR. HOWARD: So here you see this one, September 11. The reference says "hire syg and H7," correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: In your review of the Tor chat logs, did you find a Tor chat with a user identified as H7 around September 2011?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes, I did.
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, could you please publish Government Exhibit 224, which is already in evidence, and zoom in, please.
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Kiernan, this is an excerpt taken from an 88-page log file, is that correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: And the first excerpt starts on September 30, 2011, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: It says: "[Logging started]
"H7: Hi, I wanted to let you know whats going on before the weekend. Ive got a SRM instance running on my end. I have created a revised SQL search query, now i need to change it to the Active Record Class used on the site.
"Myself: great, glad you are up and running and starting to make progress. When do you think you'll have the new search function ready for me to test?
"H7: soon
"H7: if i do any work over the weekend ill let you know, but probably monday or tuesday
"Myself: ok, that doesn't tell me much :P I'm not trying to put pressure on you or anything, it just helps me to know.
"Myself: that sounds good
"Myself: have a great weekend. I've got another little project for you after the search is done before you start the security audit, so message me Monday or Tuesday when it's complete.
"H7: thanks, ill talk to you then. have a nice weekend :-)."
(Continued on next page)
BY MR. HOWARD:
MR. HOWARD: The next part is October 3, 2011, is that correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes.
MR. HOWARD: "h7: Hi, i've written a new search function. Im pretty happy about it, although it does contain one "work around."
H7: the only changes are in controllers/silkroad.php search_results function.
H7: what format do you want it in?
Myself: just send me your version of controllers/silkroad.php
Myself: I'll let you know if I have any trouble with it, or questions. Are you ready for your next challenge?
H7: yes, whats next?
Myself: We've been having issues with users getting their accounts hacked. I think the main issue is from sites pretending to be Silk Road and stealing the user's login info.
Myself: Can you look at the login functions and see if you can come up with a way to mitigate this problem?"
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Kiernan, the next excerpt starts October 21, 2011, is that correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That's correct.
MR. HOWARD: "H7: Silk Road, i would like to take next week off. I have to take care of some other projects and i figure you are busy with this outage anyways. The git repo should not take long after i get back.
Myself: ok, hopefully I won't be busy next week like I've been busy this week. How much did you work this week?
H7: 35 hours
H7: Ive got the notes on cleaning the code for thrid pary audit if you want it now.
Myself: sure, send it over. I'll see you on the 31st then?"
MR. HOWARD: And the next excerpt starts from the same chat log, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: The same log, yes.
MR. HOWARD: October 30, 2011, is that right?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That is correct.
MR. HOWARD: "H7: How was your week?
Myself: not bad. I will be travelling soon, so I have much to do before I go and I didn't get as much as I wanted, but this week I will focus on getting out of town.
H7: Ok."
THE COURT: I think you left out the word "done."
MR. HOWARD: Pardon me. "Myself: Not bad. I will be traveling soon, so I have much to do before I go and I didn't get as much done as I wanted, but this week I will focus on getting out of town.
H7: Okay."
Thank you, your Honor.
THE COURT: When we are done with this one, let's take our afternoon break.
MR. HOWARD: Sure.
"H7: Is it just you over there?
Myself: I have people to take care of, but I'll be travelling alone. is that what you mean?
H7: No, When you leave town will anyone be looking after the servers?
Myself: oh, yes indeed
H7: Because i see "The Silk Road Staff" written in messages, but i dont know if its just you or not.
Myself: it's basically just me, but more and more I am trying to spread the responsibility around. You are a big part of that.;)" Emoticon.
Did you want me to stop in the middle or should I finish the exhibit?
THE COURT: You can finish the exhibit and then we'll take our break.
MR. HOWARD: Thank you, your Honor.
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Kiernan, the next section starts on November 9, 2011, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: Yes, it does.
MR. HOWARD: And this is page 27 of a total of 88 pages in this chat log?
THOMAS KIERNAN: In this log, yes.
MR. HOWARD: "Myself: Okay, I want to give you a 50 percent raise to $1,500 per week. You're going to be managing people and that always comes with extra headache so I want you to be well compensated for it.
H7: Thank you.
Myself: Sure, thank you! So, we've received several applicants already. They are sending their applications to the username Silk Road HR on the main site. There is a link in the footer now called "careers" that is directing them there.
Myself: I'll give you access to that account so you can see who you want to bring in for a trial period.
H7: Okay.
Myself: We've talked about it before, but basically I want you to create tasks that can be given a dollar value corresponding to your estimate of the time they should take at a rate of $25/hour. If a new person is giving you bad results, or isn't communicating well, or for whatever reason they aren't working out, gently let them go and block them out of the repo. You'll probably want to figure out a good way of communicating with your team, either through torchat, or the git site, or whatever. You'll need to keep track of what your team members have earned, and each week I'll send you the coins for you to disburse. Try to keep it below $2,000 per week unless I let you know that we can support more.
H7: Okay. Sounds good."
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Kiernan, the next excerpt starts on December 15, 2011, correct?
THOMAS KIERNAN: That's correct.
MR. HOWARD: "Myself: By the way, I'm going to be unavailable from about 4:00 a.m. UTC Friday to about the same time on Sunday, so I'll send you your pay tomorrow.
H7: K, you forgot me last week.
And can you send 100USD to Silk Road HR for this weeks bounties.
Myself: You are right, so sorry about that. Sending $3,000 now for last week and this week.
H7: Why $3,000 for two week?
Myself: Aren't I paying you $1,500/WK?
H7: It was 2,000 a week last time you paid me.
Myself: Our sales were up a bit that week so I thought I'd give you a bonus. The last rate we had talked about was $1,500 a week, though.
H7: I recall you asked me to work full time on the group development and the new server/hosting. Since then you have told me to focus on group development. Was I supposed to revert to part-time.
Myself: No.
Yeah, I guess you are right, sorry my memory isn't serving me right now."
THE COURT: All right. Is this a good time for a break?
MR. HOWARD: Yes, your Honor.
THE COURT: Ladies and gentlemen, let's take our afternoon break. I want to remind you not to talk to each other or anybody else about this case. Thank you.