4.Richard Chapman Bates — Direct (Part 1)
331 linesMR. HOWARD: The government would call Richard Bates.
THE COURT: All right.
(Pause)
THE COURT: Mr. Bates.
(Witness sworn)
THE COURT: Mr. Bates, please be seated, sir.
It will be important for you to pull yourself up so you can speak directly into the mic.
Mr. Howard.
MR. HOWARD: Thank you, your Honor.
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES, called as a witness by the Government, having been duly sworn, testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION BY MR. HOWARD:
MR. HOWARD: Good afternoon, Mr. Bates.
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Good afternoon.
MR. HOWARD: How old are you?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: I am 31 years old.
MR. HOWARD: And where do you currently live?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: I currently live in Austin, Texas.
MR. HOWARD: And where do you work?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: I work for eBay.
MR. HOWARD: And what do you do for a living?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: I am a software engineer.
MR. HOWARD: Are you familiar with Ross Ulbricht?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Yes, I am.
MR. HOWARD: And how are you familiar with him?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: I went to college with him at the University of Texas at Dallas, and then I had reunited or rekindled our friendship when I moved to Austin in 2010.
MR. HOWARD: When did you first meet the defendant?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: That would be sometime in the summer of 2002 when I was just starting college, freshman year.
MR. HOWARD: What did you study in college?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: I studied computer science.
MR. HOWARD: And what did the defendant study in college?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: He studied physics.
MR. HOWARD: Do you see Mr. Ulbricht sitting in the courtroom today?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Yes, I do.
MR. HOWARD: Could you please identify him by something he's wearing?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: It looks like he's got a gray sweater on and, what is that, a red and black-striped tie, I believe.
MR. HOWARD: Will the record please reflect that the witness has identified the defendant.
THE COURT: So reflected.
MR. HOWARD: Now, Mr. Bates, I want to direct your attention to 2011.
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Okay.
MR. HOWARD: Did the defendant share a secret with you?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Yes, he did.
MR. HOWARD: And what was the secret?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: He shared with me that he created and ran the Silk Road website.
MR. HOWARD: And what was the Silk Road website?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: It was a Tor-based website where people could buy and sell drugs.
MR. HOWARD: And why did the defendant share this secret with you?
MR. DRATEL: Objection.
THE COURT: Sustained.
MR. HOWARD: Did you provide -- did the defendant tell you why he told you the secret?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: I issued him basically an ultimatum because he wanted programming assistance. That's why he told me about it.
MR. HOWARD: Did you provide help?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Yes, I did.
MR. HOWARD: And for how long did you provide help?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: I provided help unknowingly in 2010; and then during 2011, I knew for a while and that went on into the summer of 2011.
MR. HOWARD: So we'll circle back to discuss that more in detail later.
Turning your attention to October 2013, did you learn at some point the defendant got arrested?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Yes, I did.
MR. HOWARD: After that, did you talk to any law enforcement agents?
MR. HOWARD: To be clear, did law enforcement agents come to you or did you reach out to law enforcement agents?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: They came to me.
MR. HOWARD: And where did this occur?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: This occurred just outside my apartment.
MR. HOWARD: And can you describe what happened during that encounter?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: To put it succinctly, I lied to them.
MR. HOWARD: What happened?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: They, you know, asked me what I knew about Ross. And I said, you know, I didn't know that he was working on the Silk Road when I knew that he was.
MR. HOWARD: And why did you do that at the time?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Because I was scared.
MR. HOWARD: Now, are you testifying here today in part based on an agreement with the government?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Yes, I am.
MR. HOWARD: And what kind of agreement is that?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: It's a nonprosecution agreement.
MR. HOWARD: And what is your understanding of what your obligations are under the agreement?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: My understanding is that my obligations are, you know, to meet with prosecutors, to tell them the truth, and to tell the truth to this Court here today.
MR. HOWARD: Now, what is your understanding of what the government will do if you fulfill your part of the agreement?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: That they will not prosecute me for three specific things: The technical assistance that I gave Ross that he used to, you know, run the Silk Road; they will not prosecute me for the work I did with Ross where we tried to create a bitcoin exchange; and they will not prosecute me for drugs that I purchased for personal use.
MR. HOWARD: Now, let's talk a little bit about your personal use of drugs. What kind of drugs have you used?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: I have used marijuana, MDMA, psychedelic mushrooms, Vicodin and one time I purchased antibiotics.
MR. HOWARD: When did you first start using illegal drugs?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: It was soon after graduating in 2007.
MR. HOWARD: And what were your sources for these illegal drugs?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: At what time?
MR. HOWARD: After 2011.
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: After 2011, I was buying drugs on the Silk Road primarily.
MR. HOWARD: How did you learn about the Silk Road?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: I learned about the Silk Road when Ross told me about it.
MR. HOWARD: And what was your username on Silk Road?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: My username was mêlée spelled M-E-L-E-E.
MR. HOWARD: What kinds of narcotics did you purchase from Silk Road?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: I -- basically the list I had gone over before, that would be, you know, marijuana, MDMA, mushrooms, Vicodin and antibiotics.
MR. HOWARD: Focusing for a second on mushrooms, when was the first time you used them?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: The first time I used them was in 2011. I tried a very small amount that Ross had given me.
MR. HOWARD: Do you remember that incident when you -- when he gave you those mushrooms?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Yes, I do. He had a large, black trash bag that was, you know, running kind of empty. It looked like it had been full at some point --
MR. DRATEL: Objection.
THE COURT: Sustained.
You can continue.
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Do I just continue?
THE COURT: Just pick up.
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Okay. Give me one second.
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: So, yeah, I got them from him. He told me they were kind of old, but I could have some if I wanted any, and he gave me a small Ziploc bag with them in it.
MR. HOWARD: Did the defendant have any discussions with you about where he got those mushrooms from?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: He told me that he had grown them.
MR. HOWARD: During 2011, how frequently were you using illegal drugs?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: During 2011, not that frequently. I'd say, you know, you know once every couple months.
MR. HOWARD: Approximately when was the last time you used illegal drugs?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: That would be in the summer of 2013.
MR. HOWARD: Now earlier you described that you first met the defendant in college, correct?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: That is correct.
MR. HOWARD: When did you graduate from college?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: I graduated in 2007.
MR. HOWARD: And where did you live immediately after graduating?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: I lived in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area.
MR. HOWARD: Do you know where the defendant went after college?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: He went to Pennsylvania for graduate work.
MR. HOWARD: Do you know where he went to graduate school?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: I believe it was Penn State.
MR. HOWARD: Did you stay in touch with the defendant after he moved to Penn State?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: We were, you know, Facebook friends. We kind of stayed in touch that way.
MR. HOWARD: And earlier, you testified that you reconnected with him when you moved to Austin?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Yes, that's correct.
MR. HOWARD: Can you describe what happened.
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: I -- when I moved to Austin, I looked at my Facebook page and I said well, who do I know that lives in Austin and I saw that Ross lived there, and, you know, I remembered we had hung out a couple of times, we went on a spring break trip. And I said hey, man, I'm moving down to Austin and we should hang out. And then after I moved down, we, you know, that's what we did. We hung out. We went cliff-jumping a few weeks later.
MR. HOWARD: And in late 2010, how frequently did you see the defendant?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: In late 2010, I'd say weekly.
MR. HOWARD: Were you aware of what the defendant did for a living back then?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: At that time, I -- my understanding was that he had a book business called Good Wagon Books, and I also saw him editing some academic papers, and my understanding was he was being compensated for that, as well.
MR. HOWARD: Was the defendant familiar with the fact that you were a computer programmer?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Yes, he was.
MR. HOWARD: During late 2010, did you have any discussions with the defendant regarding computer programming?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: I'm sorry. What was the year again?
MR. HOWARD: Late 2010?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Late 2010? Yes.
MR. HOWARD: And generally what kinds of discussions were you having?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: In late 2010, he was asking me some PHP programming questions, a few questions about server administration.
MR. HOWARD: Could you please flip in your binder to what's been marked for identification purposes to Government Exhibit 1000.
MR. HOWARD: Do you recognize this exhibit?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Yes, I do.
MR. HOWARD: And what is it?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: This is a Google chat conversation between Ross and me.
MR. HOWARD: And what is a Google chat conversation?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: It's, you know, a text-based communication, you can go through the website or your phone and talk to another person via text.
MR. HOWARD: The government offers Government Exhibit 1000.
THE COURT: Mr. Dratel.
MR. DRATEL: I just need to look. The numbers have changed. So I just need to go back and find them.
Vayner and hearsay, your Honor.
THE COURT: Those objections are overruled. Government Exhibit 1000 is received.
(Government's Exhibit 1000 received in evidence)
MR. HOWARD: Ms. Rosen, can you please publish Government Exhibit 1000. Can you zoom in on the top of the message, please.
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Bates, here it says at the top "Subject: Chat with baronsyntax@gmail.com."
What is baronsyntax@gmail.com?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: That is my personal email address.
MR. HOWARD: Down on the "to" line it says "To rossulbricht@gmail.com."
What is rossulbricht@gmail.com?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: That's Ross' email address.
MR. HOWARD: And what was the date of this chat communication?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: This was October 25, 2010.
MR. HOWARD: Now, Mr. Evert, can you please scroll down to the body of the message, please and zoom in down to here, please.
MR. HOWARD: There are references in this messaging to baronsyntax. What does that refer to?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Those are the parts of the conversation that I wrote.
MR. HOWARD: And how about the parts that are labeled as "me"?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Those are the parts that Ross wrote.
MR. HOWARD: "Me: howdy
Baronsyntax: hey
Me: what's the latest?
Me: make it to work?
Baronsyntax: yeah, it seems to be running just fine now." Emoticon.
"Me: sweet
Me: mind a programming queastion?
Baronsyntax: No queastions please. but you can ask me a question if you'd likfe." Emoticon.
"Baronsyntax: I am the grammar facists
Me: i can tell." Emoticon.
"Me: ok
Me: log() is included in Math::Trig in perl, but my admin won't include the module..." And then there's some more discussion.
Can you describe what is happening in this conversation?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Yes. He's having an issue with perl, and there's a library function that he wants to use but can't and is asking me if there's another way to use it. I'm providing assistance to him.
MR. HOWARD: Is this the only time the defendant asked you for help with computer programming?
MR. HOWARD: How frequently would he ask you for help in late 2010?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: In late 2010, it was very frequent.
MR. HOWARD: How about early 2011, was he still asking you questions regarding programming?
MR. HOWARD: During this time period, did you know what the defendant was working on?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: If we're talking about early 2011?
MR. HOWARD: That's correct.
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Not -- I believe the time that I knew about it was late February/early March of 2011.
MR. HOWARD: But before that --
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: No, I didn't.
MR. HOWARD: -- did you have any discussion about what he was working on?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Yes, I did. And I asked him, you know, basically what are you working on and he told me it was top secret.
MR. HOWARD: Can you please flip now in your binder to what's been marked for identification purposes as Government Exhibit 1001. Do you recognize this exhibit?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Yes, I do.
MR. HOWARD: And what is it?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: It's another Google chat conversation between Ross and me.
MR. HOWARD: The government offers Government Exhibit 1001.
MR. DRATEL: The same as the previous objections.
THE COURT: Those objection are overruled.
GX 1001 is received.
(Government's Exhibit 1001 received in evidence)
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Evert, can you please publish Government Exhibit 1001.
MR. HOWARD: What is the date of this chat communication, Mr. Bates?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: This is February 28, 2011.
MR. HOWARD: To be clear, are the names and the parts of the conversation labeled just like the last one we looked at?
MR. HOWARD: Baronsyntax is you and "me" is the defendant, correct?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: That's correct.
MR. HOWARD: "Baronsyntax: I'm officially forbidding you from mentioning your secret project to me again unless you are going to reveal it.
Me: Can I ask you programming questions for "no particular reason".
Baronsyntax: Yea."
MR. HOWARD: So Mr. Bates, what was going on in this conversation?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: This was kind of the build-up to where I issued him an ultimatum not long after this where I told him that he needs to either tell me what he's doing or leave me out of it. I kind of became a little suspicious. I thought he might be trying to hack into some website or something, but the fact that he just said top secret worried me a little bit.
MR. HOWARD: And after you gave the ultimatum, what happened?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: He was in my apartment and I told him tell me about it or leave me out of it, and he told me about it. And he said something along the lines of, you know, it's a -- I'm working on a website where people can buy drugs. Then he had his laptop at the time and he showed me the Silk Road homepage for the first time.
MR. HOWARD: Did he use your Internet when he did this?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: No, he didn't. We were worried that it might somehow be traced back to me, so I told him one of my neighbors had an open Wi-Fi network.
MR. HOWARD: And what do you mean by an open Wi-Fi network?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: I mean a Wi-Fi network that doesn't have password protection and it was, you know, one of my neighbor's Internet access.
MR. HOWARD: And what did the defendant show you about the website?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: I remember seeing the homepage, I remember seeing the green camel for the first time and pictures of drugs.
MR. HOWARD: What was your reaction when you first learned about this?
MR. DRATEL: Objection.
THE COURT: Overruled.
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: So -- sorry, what was the question again?
MR. HOWARD: What was your reaction when you first learned?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: I was shocked but I was also very intrigued because, I mean, I didn't know how this, you know, could be even possible. I think my immediate reaction was they're going to shut this thing down really, really soon, and that's when he first explained Tor to me and he told me it accepted payment in bitcoin.
Ross had told me about bitcoin before, but I didn't really listen to it and now I was very much paying attention.
MR. HOWARD: At the time you had this conversation, had you heard of Tor before?
MR. HOWARD: And what did the defendant tell you about Tor?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Basically that it's, you know, a network that anonymizes or tries to anonymize web traffic.
MR. HOWARD: Your Honor, may I approach.
THE COURT: You may.
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Bates, I'm handing you what's been marked for identification purposes as Government Exhibit 1005.
MR. HOWARD: Do you recognize what this is?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Yes, I do.
MR. HOWARD: And what is it?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: This is a recording of a voicemail that Ross left me on 2011.
MR. HOWARD: Do you remember the date that this voicemail was left?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: I believe it was March 15, 2011.
MR. HOWARD: And do you remember what time of day this was approximately?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: It was just after 6:00 p.m. central Time I believe.
MR. HOWARD: Are you familiar with the defendant's voice?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Yes, I am.
MR. HOWARD: How do you know that this CD, this exhibit, this thing in front of you contains that recording?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Yesterday we went over it and they had me listen to it to confirm that it was a voicemail, and I initialed and dated it right there.
MR. HOWARD: The government offers Government Exhibit 1005.
MR. DRATEL: No objection.
THE COURT: Received.
(Government's Exhibit 1005 received in evidence)
MR. HOWARD: May I approach, your Honor.
THE COURT: You may.
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Evert, can you please play the recording.
(Audio recording played)
(Continued on next page)
MR. HOWARD: I'm sorry. Would you please play the recorder.
(Audio played)
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Something went wrong.
(Audio replayed)
BY MR. HOWARD:
MR. HOWARD: What happened after this voicemail was left for you?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Not long after that we communicated on Google Chat about a problem he was having with the Silk Road being down.
MR. HOWARD: Would you please flip in your binder to what's been marked for identification purposes as Government Exhibit 1006.
(Pause)
MR. HOWARD: Do you recognize what this is?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Yes, I do.
MR. HOWARD: And what is it?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: This is another Google Chat conversation between Ross and me that happened shortly after that voicemail was recorded.
MR. HOWARD: The government offers Government Exhibit 1006.
MR. DRATEL: The same objections.
THE COURT: Those objections are overruled. GX1006 is received.
(Government's Exhibit 1006 received in evidence)
BY MR. HOWARD:
MR. HOWARD: Now, Mr. Bates, what was the date and time of this conversation?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: This is March 15, 2011, and if my time conversion is correct, this is 6:36 p.m. Central Time.
MR. HOWARD: When you say "conversion," what are you referring to?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: It's listed on the paper as being Pacific Daylight Time, and I'm converting it to Central Time, which is where Ross and I were both located, in that time zone at the time.
MR. HOWARD: And this is shortly after that voicemail we just played, correct?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: That is correct.
MR. HOWARD: And are the parts of the conversation labeled just like the others we reviewed earlier?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Yes, they are.
MR. HOWARD: You are "baronsyntax" and the defendant is labeled as "me."
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: That is correct.
MR. HOWARD: "Baronsyntax: What's the problem?
"Baronsyntax: You happened to call when I was in the bathroom
"Me: My site is down and I don't know why. Too much traffic I think. I get an error about too many open connectons. Might be my amature coding left open connections everywhere, don't know
"Baronsyntax: What kind of connections?
"Me: Doesn't say. Maybe mysql
"Baronsyntax: ok, so you've got some requests that leaves a mysql transaction open - is that what you're thinking?
"Baronsyntax: Are you looking at apache logs or what
"Baronsyntax: I don't have any frame of reference here
"Baronsyntax: Would it be better if I called?
"Me: Yea, if you can I don't want to be a nusance"
So what happened during this part of the -- during this conversation, Mr. Bates?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: During this conversation he tells me that the Silk Road is down and he's speculating as to why that might be. And then I'm trying to help him figure it out. I'm basically trying to troubleshoot.
MR. HOWARD: And what was your understanding of what the defendant was referring to when he said "my site is down"?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: That was the Silk Road. Frequently, when we were talking in Google Chat, we would refer to it as "the" site or "my" site by the defendant.
MR. HOWARD: Is there a reason you did it that way?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Because we knew that, you know, this is something that if -- I guess if someone was reading the conversation, since this is over -- this is not encrypted protocol, that we didn't want them to know that we were talking about Silk Road.
MR. HOWARD: What do you mean by an encrypted protocol?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: An encrypted protocol would be, you know, software that has some precautions in it that are designed to prevent anyone except the intended recipient from reading the message.
MR. HOWARD: Now, if you could please flip to what's been marked in there for identification -- sorry, marked in your binder for identification purposes as Government Exhibit 1007.
Do you recognize what this is?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Yes, I do.
MR. HOWARD: And what is this?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: This is another Google Chat conversation between Ross and me that happened I think a few hours after the last one that we looked at.
MR. HOWARD: The government offers Government Exhibit 1007.
MR. DRATEL: The same objections, your Honor.
THE COURT: Those objections are overruled. GX1007 is received.
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Evert, could you please publish Government Exhibit 1007 and zoom in on the message.
MR. HOWARD: Mr. Bates, you testified this happened the same night following the previous conversation, correct?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: That's correct.
MR. HOWARD: So I'm not going to even try to read the first four lines labeled "baronsyntax." Could you just describe what's going on overall here?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: You know, I have to -- this was a while ago, but I believe what's happening here is I'm giving him commands to run on his server terminal. I know tail dash F is a way of looking at the output of a file realtime, and that's used for log files so that you can see them as they're being updated. Lsof is a, you know, either a UNIX or Linux program that lists the open files on a system. And here I'm telling him, you know, tell me what files are open and search for php -- that's what that "grep php" is. In essence, I'm trying to help him figure out why the site is down.
MR. HOWARD: By "the site," you mean Silk Road?
MR. HOWARD: The last two lines of this chat go:
"Baronsyntax: My neighbor has an open Wi-Fi network
"Me: Sounds good." Emoticon.
What were you discussing here?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: I believe that we were talking about either him coming over to my place or me going over to his place. It sounds like if I say my neighbor has an open Wi-Fi network, we were at least entertaining him coming over to my place.
MR. HOWARD: Why were you telling the defendant that you had an open Wi-Fi network?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Well, my neighbor has the open Wi-Fi network. This is, again, related to, you know, it not being traceable back to, you know, any of us. It would be -- if they did trace back the connection, it would go back to my neighbor and not either of us.
MR. HOWARD: You had your own Internet connection at this time, correct?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: That is correct.
MR. HOWARD: Now, Mr. Bates, would you please flip in your binder to what's been marked for identification purposes as Government Exhibit 1008.
Do you recognize this exhibit?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Yes, I do.
MR. HOWARD: And what is it?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: This is another Google Chat conversation that happened later in the evening after the one that we just looked at.
MR. HOWARD: The government offers Government Exhibit 1008.
MR. DRATEL: The same objections, your Honor.
THE COURT: All right. Those objections are overruled. Government Exhibit 1008 is received.
(Government's Exhibit 1008 received in evidence)
THE COURT: And in just a few minutes, Mr. Howard, we will break for lunch but we've got a few minutes.
MR. HOWARD: Thank you.
BY MR. HOWARD:
MR. HOWARD: Now, Mr. Bates, are your parts of the conversation and the defendant's parts marked in the same way as all the other chats we have looked at today?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Yes, they are.
MR. HOWARD: "Baronsyntax: I'm just now reading about the tor network
"Me: yea, site's down again
"Me: what are you reading?
"Baronsyntax: just the wikipedia page. Apparently tor does a lot of encryption/decryption. Could be an expensive operation
"Me: im so stressed! I gotta get this site up tonight. It's so weird because the site is accessable through tor2web, but not by directly accessing the .onion url
"Baronsyntax: I'm not sure how that stuff works
"Me: i wish i did."
So, Mr. Bates, what's going on in this part of the conversation?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: I'm, you know, talking about the first time I read documentation about Tor, and Ross is reiterating that, you know, he's stressed because the Silk Road is still down in some fashion and that he can't access the onion URL.
MR. HOWARD: And what is the onion URL?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Ah, in a dot-onion URL, you know, if you go to like Google.com, that's -- in a normal Web browser, that's the website address for Google. In Tor you would have to go to something dot-onion in the Tor browser to get to the site.
MR. HOWARD: Now, could you please flip in your binder to what's been marked for identification purposes as Government Exhibit 1002. Do you recognize what this is?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: Yes, I do.
MR. HOWARD: And what is it?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: This is another Google Chat conversation between Ross and me that happened a few days after the last one we looked at.
MR. HOWARD: The government offers Government Exhibit 1002.
MR. DRATEL: The same objections, your Honor.
THE COURT: Those objections are overruled. Government Exhibit 1002 is received.
(Government's Exhibit 1002 received in evidence)
BY MR. HOWARD:
MR. HOWARD: Now, what is the date of this online chat, Mr. Bates?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: This is March 17, 2011.
MR. HOWARD: A couple days after the voicemail and the previous chats we have reviewed?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: That's correct.
MR. HOWARD: And are the parts of the conversation labeled just like all the other ones we reviewed?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: That's also correct.
MR. HOWARD: "baronsyntax: You still hiring for your book business?
"Me: yea, the team is getting full, but there are still some spots, have someone in mind?
"Baronsyntax: possibly, what kind of work is it?
"Me: weekend job, door-to-door, pays $12/hr on average
"Baronsyntax: weekends only?
"Me: yep. Sat and sun
"Baronsyntax: yeah, he's probably going to want more hours than that. Thanks for humoring me though :-)
"Me: sure."
Let's take a pause.
What was going on in this part of the conversation, Mr. Bates?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: This was a while ago but I think we're -- yeah, we're talking about a friend of mine who was looking for work and possibly Ross hiring him at the book business that he ran.
MR. HOWARD: And at the time -- at this time, did you understand him to be involved in the book business?
MR. HOWARD: And what was the name of that business?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: I believe it was Good Wagon Books.
MR. HOWARD: This was in addition to Silk Road?
RICHARD CHAPMAN BATES: At this time, yes, it was in addition to.
MR. HOWARD: Let's continue down the chat:
"me: my site had a 40 minute spot on a national radio program
"me: friggin crazy, you gotta keep my secret buddy
"baronsyntax: I haven't told anyone and I don't intend to
"me: i know i can trust you
"baronsyntax: I don't even know the onion url. I might tell people about the site though - if that's ok?
"baronsyntax: I won't even mention I know someone who runs it
"me: mmm....ok, gotta have a good story for how you found it in case they ask."