According to the Free Barrett Brown Twitter account, a date has been set for the release of Barrett Brown from prison. “We have some good news for once. Barrett has received an official early release date of November 29th. He’s getting out this year! #FreeBB.”
While investigating intelligence company Stratfor as a reporter for The Guardian, Barrett Brown came across hacked files online. Barrett Brown linked to a forum of hacked documents that included credit card numbers. He faced many charges. With the possibility of spending the rest of his life in prison, Barrett Brown pleaded charges down to “accessory after the fact.” He took a five year, three month prison sentence in 2015. Now, it appears he is going to be released.
After the Twitter announcement, a statement was issued at the Free Barrett Brown website:
Barrett Brown comments on his early release date
We are very excited about the announcement that Barrett Brown is officially scheduled for early release on 29 November 2016. Upon release, Barrett will have to report to a halfway house in Dallas, TX, but other details of his post-release conditions are yet to be determined.
In response to the announcement, Barrett said, “Well, I certainly know when I’m not wanted.”
The announcement comes after a lengthy back and forth with prison officials about potential release dates. As noted on Twitter, there was a possibility that Barrett could have been released as early as May 2016, but the BOP has repeatedly pushed the date back.
Barrett has used his recent writings to document various administrative and bureaucratic abuses he’s endured.
In his 9 July column, The Fact of Sisyphus, Barrett wrote about his time in ‘the hole’, noting that he has “spent a total of five months over the past few years of incarceration being held in 23- to 24-hour-a-day Special Housing Unit confinement cells.”
Indeed, we have written about the many times the BOP has gone after Barrett, including placing him in solitary, confiscating his privileged legal information, and placing him on a watchlist.
On 31 March 2015, Barrett’s email access was revoked for speaking to the press. Access has since been restored, but the BOP has repeatedly stonewalled Barrett’s attempts at redress. In July, he produced a “timeline of BOP malfeasance.”
We’re very pleased at the prospect of a free Barrett Brown taking the BOP to task.
Note: despite his scheduled early release, Barrett still has to pay the enormous restitution of $890,250 to Stratfor as part of his sentencing. Donate to Barrett’s fund to help alleviate one of America’s foremost investigative journalists from this unjust burden, here. (all links in original)