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Comment by tptacek | Hacker News Reader

The videos were idiotic, and although I made them in a manic state brought on by sudden withdrawal from Paxil and Suboxone, and while distraught over the threats to prosecute my mother, that’s still me in those YouTube clips talking nonsense about how the FBI would never take me alive.

The video threats are the one charge he seems unambiguously contrite about.

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Nevertheless, Brown did not carry out those threats and most likely if he ever had any intention of carrying them out it didn't last for more than a moment. Could be Brown is an excitable blowhard, and actually not a murderous thug. I'm reminded of some of Linus Torvalds' infamous rants and wondering how poorly he could be made to appear to the people at large if he were to be prosecuted by the gov't for something.

Link to an example of Torvalds making a specific, plausible threat of violence against anyone?

Compare to:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/iv9i3r85fdcpu6g/Screenshot%202015-... https://www.dropbox.com/s/rnk8x15b6y1uw5j/Screenshot%202015-... https://www.dropbox.com/s/fw7nmmht41vtdsi/Screenshot%202015-...

Here's the applicable statute:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/875

He plead guilty to 875(c), and the DOJ dropped the "Retaliation" and "Conspiracy to make publicly available restricted information" charges for the same fact pattern. Notable in part because the retaliation charge had a stiffer sentence.

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