Click This Link And Go To Jail
In an ongoing effort to locate and arrest child porn suspects, the FBI recently stepped up its game and started offering child porn links on the Internet. The links set up by the FBI of course do not lead to child porn, but apparently are set up to look as though they will allow the user to download illegal child pornography videos. Users who click on these links are then visited by the FBI in daybreak raids on their homes.
Last year Internet users in Pennsylvania, New York and Nevada clicked on the links to download the fake child porn videos and their IP addresses were recorded on the government webserver. After the users were identified, search warrants were obtained to conduct armed raids on the homes to seize and remove any computer-related equipment, utility bills, telephone bills, any addressed correspondence sent through the U.S. mail, video gear, camera equipment, checkbooks, bank statements and credit card statements.
Although this technique has raised questions about entrapment, issues with identifying exact users on open wireless Internet connections and whether or not simply clicking a link that was not actually child pornography warrants a FBI raid. CNET News.com reports that legal documents indicate that despite these issues, courts have approved these undercover FBI operations and found that clicking on one of the fake links constituted sufficient probable cause to justify issuing a search warrant.
Criminal defense lawyers representing defendants in the cases being prosecuted as a result of the false link FBI sting operation have not brought up the issue of entrapment. The reason that they have not, and most likely will not, is that the definition of entrapment is narrow and specific and the actions of the FBI do not meet the criteria.
If the links had claimed to lead to legal videos or if any Internet user had been forced or put under pressure to click the links, then perhaps the issue of entrapment would be raised. However, this was not the case and therefore the argument of FBI entrapment is simply not valid.
One of the people caught up in the FBI child porn snare was Roderick Vosburgh, a doctoral student at Temple University who also taught history at La Salle University. His home was raided at 7 a.m. in February 2007 after he allegedly clicked on one of the links the FBI had set up. Vosburgh answered a knock at the door to federal agents who told him they wanted to talk to him about his car. After the door opened, the agents threw Vosburgh to the ground outside of his home and handcuffed him.
Under federal law, it is a crime punishable by up to 10 years in prison to attempt to download child pornography. A jury found Vosburgh guilty of clicking the link and he is currently awaiting sentencing. His lawyer is attempting to have the jury verdict overturned before he is sentenced by claiming that there is insufficient evidence that Vosburgh specifically intended to download child pornography. If the verdict is not overturned, Vosburgh will be required to register as a sex offender for 15 years and will no longer be able to work as a college instructor.
