Barrett Brown | |
|---|---|
 Brown in 2017 | |
| Born | Barrett Lancaster Brown (1981-08-14)August 14, 1981 (age 44) |
| Occupations | Writer, hacktivist, journalist |
| Agent | Anonymous |
| Movement |  Anarchism |
| Criminal charges | Threatening a federal officer,obstruction of justice, andaccessory after the fact (2014),intentional harassment, alarm or distress (2021) |
| Criminal penalty | 63 months in federal prison, $890,250 in fines and restitution (2014), £1,200 fine (2021) |
| Partner | Sylvia Mann |
| Awards | National Magazine Award |
Barrett Lancaster Brown (born August 14, 1981) is an Americananarchist,hacktivist, writer, and associate ofAnonymous. He is mainly known for his role alongside Anonymous during the early 2010s, including during theStratfor email leak.
Born in a wealthy family, Brown grew up opposed to authority, before becoming afreelance writer for various media outlets. In 2009, he founded Project PM, a crowdfunded investigation wiki. Around that time, he also started working withAnonymous and being one of their associates, helping them during some of their actions, such as during theTunisian revolution or against theAustralian government. In 2011–2012, he was involved in theStratfor email leak, during which hacktivists managed to obtain and publish thousands of intelligence documents related to the, among others, Americanmilitary-industrial complex. In 2012, theFBI executed search warrants at his home and later arrested him, also targetting his mother.
Three years later, in January 2015, Brown was ultimately sentenced to more than 5 years in federal prison after pleading guilty toaccessory after the fact,obstruction of justice, andthreatening a federal officer stemming from the FBI's investigation into the 2012 Stratfor email leak. After his release, he would later be involved in Pursuance, a platform trying to link activists together, before moving to theUnited Kingdom.
Brown has written forVanity Fair,The Guardian, theHuffington Post,The Onion and other outlets. In 2016, he won aNational Magazine Award for a series of jailhouse memoirs published inD Magazine andThe Intercept. He published a memoir,My Glorious Defeats, in 2024.
Brown was born and grew up inDallas County. His father Robert was a wealthy real estate investor[1] until the FBI investigated him for fraud and he lost the family's money.[2] Robert Brown was charged in a real-estate-fraud scheme, but the charges were eventually dropped.[3][4] His parents divorced when he was 7.[1] After the divorce he lived with his mother Karen Lancaster.[5] His young life would have been marked by the example of his father and resistance to authority.[3]
Brown exhibited an early interest in writing and journalism, creating his own newspapers on his family's computer while attendingPreston Hollow Elementary School where he was thepoet laureate.[5][1] He went on to contribute to his school newspapers, and interned at several weekly newspapers during his teenage years.[5][1] While in middle school, he began exploring the possibilities of online networks and readingAyn Rand. He attended theEpiscopal School of Dallas through his sophomore year of high school, where he created theObjectivists Club and placed second in a national Ayn Rand essay contest.[1][5]
In 1998, Brown spent his would-be junior year inTanzania with his father who was residing there for alogging business andsafari hunting.[4] While in Africa, Brown completed high school online through aTexas Tech University program, earning college credits as well as his high school diploma.[1] In 2000 he enrolled at theUniversity of Texas at Austin and spent two semesters taking writing courses before leaving school to pursue a full-time career as afreelance writer.[1]
After dropping out of college, Brown remained in Austin freelancing and taking various writing jobs.[1] He's stated he started out just wanting to write humor.[6] In 2007 his bookFlock of Dodos: Behind Modern Creationism, Intelligent Design, and the Easter Bunny, co-authored with Jon P. Alston, was published. In that same year, Brown and a group of friends moved toBrooklyn where their apartment was a hang out spot which included a group of marijuana dealers. He wrote columns forVanity Fair andThe Onion and other publications but much of what he published was on blogs like theDaily Kos for which he was not paid.[5]
During this time, Brown started spending more time online and his heroin use increased which he had used on and off with since he was 19. Becoming agriefer inSecond Life, he socialized with other griefers onimageboards like4chan and thewikiEncyclopedia Dramatica with whom he collaborated to harass other users and coordinate elaborate pranks. Though not a hacker himself, the hackers he associated with would later be known asAnonymous.[5] Brown wrote that he "became obsessed with the question of what would happen when these people realized what they were capable of."[3]
By December 2009, Brown was living on a couch at a friend's apartment in Brooklyn, spending most of his time online and shooting heroin.[1] In the spring of 2010, he moved back to Dallas and entered outpatient treatment for his addiction. As part of his treatment he was prescribedSuboxone, a synthetic opioid.[5]
Brown began working with Anonymous after watching it form into ahackivist collective with their2008 attacks on theChurch of Scientology. FollowingOperation Titstorm in February 2010 which Anonymous launcheddenial-of-service attacks against theAustralian government, he wrote the article “Anonymous, Australia, and the Inevitable Fall of the Nation-State” inThe Huffington Post explaining Anonymous and reasons for the attacks. Because those involved with Anonymous would not reveal their name, Brown became the de facto contact for media whose inquiries were previously being fielded by Gregg Housh.[1] He gave interviews on major TV networks and various media outlets and considered himself "information operations" for the group, though he was often erroneously referred to by the media as their spokesperson or similar.[6][7]Rolling Stone stated "part of his appeal was the act of his drily affected pseudo-aristocratic-asshole persona, which he exaggerated during media appearances"[5]
WithOperation Tunisia starting in January 2011 which Anonymous supported theArab Spring by attacking the Tunisian government, Brown become directly involved by creating a guide for protesters.[3] Barrett Brown was also referenced byThe Jester in some of their communications, where The Jester addressed him.[8]
In May 2011, Brown announced he was stepping away from Anonymous to focus on Project PM citing the lack of quality control and some of their actions, such asOperation Sony, did not align with his aims.[9]
In early October 2011 Anonymous launched OpCartel against theZetas drug cartel and Mexican government[10] then later claimed an Anonymous member was kidnapped by the cartel.[11] In November, Brown said that 25,000 emails from the Mexican government containing the names of 75 members of the Zetas and associates would be released if a member of Anonymous kidnapped by the cartel was not set free.[12] Anonymous later said the member released and called a truce.[13]The New York Times raised doubts about the operation and kidnapping claim.[14]
Brown stated he would continue the work to expose drug cartels and their associates and that he working with CNN on a story about adistrict attorney who was working with drug cartels.[13] In his memoir, Brown wrote OpCartel "fizzled out" after he "made a few halfhearted efforts to obtain information" but that he "lacked the wherewithal to get anything accomplished" and was working through "a haze of opiates and mania" during the events.[15]
In 2009, Brown began work on hiscrowdsourced investigation wiki, Project PM.[6] By Brown's count, Project PM had 75 members at its peak[16] who communicated through an IRC chat room and published their findings on the Project PM wiki.[17] The group dug through huge amounts of hacked files and emails from intelligence contractors, hoping to expose companies likeHBGary and Stratfor,[17] earning the trust of the hacktivist community.[16] According to Project PM members, Brown and members sometimespranked called research subjects at home.[5]
In June 2011, he and Project PM released an exclusive report about a surveillance contract called "Romas/COIN" which was discovered in e-mails hacked fromHBGary by Anonymous. It consisted of sophisticated data-mining techniques leveraging mobile software and aimed at Arab countries.[18][19] After Project PM was shut down by his 2012 arrest and incarceration, he restarted it in late 2020 while seeking asylum in the UK.[20]
In December 2011, Brown told reporters that Anonymous hadhacked millions of emails from Stratfor over Christmas and that they would be released byWikiLeaks.[21][6] Brown suggested that Anonymous tellStratfor they would "consider making any reasonable redactions to e-mails that might endanger, say, activists living under dictatorships" before emailing Stratfor CEOGeorge Friedman directly.[22] Brown didn't participate in the hack or know how to code but he did post a link in a chat which linked to documents already released online that contained email addresses and credit card information.[3][23]
On March 6, 2012, the FBI executed search warrants at Brown's apartment and his mother's house. During the search, agents took possession of his laptop computers.[24] The seized laptops included thousands of pages of chat logs from March 2011 to February 2012. These chats were produced as evidence in the trial againstJeremy Hammond and in Brown's trial.[22]
On September 12, 2012, Brown was arrested inDallas County, Texas for threatening anFBI agent in aYouTube video that has been called "unhinged".[25] At his sentencing he stated he was going through "sudden withdrawal frompaxil andsuboxone" on the day he made the video.[26]
A magistrate deniedbail because he was judged "a danger to the safety of the community and a risk of flight."[27] On October 3, 2012, a federalgrand jury indictment was returned against Brown on charges of threats, conspiracy and retaliation against a federal law enforcement officer. Various tweets, YouTube uploads and comments made by Brown before his arrest were cited as support within the indictment.[28][29]
In December 2012, Brown was indicted on an additional 12 federal charges related to the December 25, 2011hack of Austin-basedprivate intelligence companyStratfor.[30][31] A trove of millions ofStratfor emails from the hack, including authentication information for thousands of credit card, was shared by the hacker collectiveLulzSec withWikiLeaks. Brown faced up to 45 years in federal prison for allegedly sharing alink to the data as part of Project PM.[32] On January 23, 2013, a third indictment was filed against Brown on two counts of obstruction for concealing evidence during the March 6, 2012, FBI raid of his and his mother's homes.[33] Brown's mother was sentenced on November 8, 2013, to six months ofprobation and a $1,000 fine for amisdemeanor charge of obstructing the execution of a search warrant.[34][35] In September 2013, Brown was under a federal court-issuedgag order.[23] He faced at the time around 105 years in prison.[36] The targeting of Brown's mother is cited by Taylor Owen as an example illustrating how state repression also affects the families of anarchist activists.[37] In February 2014, heself-published the bookKeep Rootin' for Putin: Establishment Pundits and the Twilight of American Competence.[38]
In March 2014, most charges against Brown were dropped.[39] In April 2014, Brown agreed to aplea bargain and plead guilty to accessory after the fact in the unauthorized access to a protected computer, threatening an FBI agent and obstructing the execution of a search warrant.[40]
At sentencing, the government introduced additional chat logs seized from Brown's laptop. D Magazine wrote that the logs "painted Barrett as a leader of Anonymous, someone who knowingly stole and distributed credit card information, a wreaker of real and serious damage" in an attempt to secure a lengthy prison sentence.[22][41] This caused further delays, as the defense was not given prior access.[22] In January 2015, Brown was sentenced to 63 months in prison. He was also ordered to pay $890,250 in fines andrestitution.[42] Journalist Janus Kopfstein accused the government of making false statements about Brown before his sentencing.[43] Much of Brown's December sentencing hearing was spent in drawn-out arguments over the definitions of Project PM and Brown himself.[44][45]
During his incarceration, Brown published a series of jailhouse memoirs inD Magazine andThe Intercept, for which he won aNational Magazine Award in 2016.[46] He publicly burned the award three years later in protest ofThe Intercept closing theirSnowden archives.[47]
Brown was released from prison on November 29, 2016, and moved into ahalfway house close to downtown Dallas, Texas.[16] Brown was ordered to pay at least $200 of his $890,000 restitution every month.[48]
In 2017, Brown launched the Pursuance Project, which aimed to unite transparency activists, investigative journalists, FOIA specialists andhacktivists in a fully encrypted platform.[17][49] Brown said that Pursuance would takehacktivism into the future, letting anyone sort through troves of hacked documents and even recruit teams of hackers.[2] This project was seen as a way to organize together from far distances and act together.[49] Pursuance's goal was to offer task management and automation environment for collaborative investigations into thesurveillance state.[17] The Pursuance Project fizzled.[50]
In February 2017, lawyers for donors to Brown's legal fund filed suit against Assistant United States Attorney Candina Heath for filing asubpoena againstWePay that resulted in divulgence of their identities.[51] The lawyers argued that the irrelevance of donor information to the case against Brown and the provision of the information directly to theFederal Bureau of Investigation rather than to the prosecutor or judge led to donors' belief that the information was intended to surveil and harass the donors for activity protected by the U.S. constitution, and filed for destruction of the data and monetary damages.[52] On October 2, 2017, Judge Maria Elena James denied a motion to dismiss the case introduced by the Department of Justice.[53]
In June 2017, the Department of Justice subpoenaedThe Intercept for all communications and information on payments made to Brown. The Intercept's in-house counsel told the U.S. Attorney's Office that they would agree to turn over financial information but not communications between Brown and The Intercept. Brown suggested the subpoena related to restitution payments he was supposed to make, but commented that they should already have the information readily available. According to Brown, instead of using that information "they subpoenaed a media organization that they happen to have a great deal of interest in, The Intercept" which he called "an ill-thought-out fishing expedition".[54][55]
In November 2017, Brown criticizedJulian Assange for his secretive collaboration with the Trump campaign and then allegedly lying about it.[56] Brown said Assange had acted "as a covertpolitical operative", thus betraying WikiLeaks' focus on exposing "corporate and government wrongdoing". He considered the latter to be "an appropriate thing to do", but that "working with an authoritarian would-be leader to deceive the public is indefensible and disgusting".[56]
In 2018, three trustees of theCourage Foundation decided to remove Brown from the Courage Foundation's beneficiary list over "nasty adversarial remarks" he had made about Julian Assange", In response, Courage Foundation Director Naomi Colvin quit in protest.[57]
Brown toldThe Sunday Times after briefly living inAntigua, he moved to the United Kingdom in November 2020.[58] In April 2021, images and videos spread online of him holding a protest banner which said: "Kill Cops" near where an officer had been killed.Metropolitan Police tweeted they were trying to identify him and right-wing journalistAndy Ngô tweeted an accusation that he was "antifa-linked".[20][59][60] Claims spread online that Brown was anundercover police officer, under police protection, or anagent provocateur. The Metropolitan Police toldReuters and Brown wrote online that the claims were false.[20][59]
In May 2021, he was arrested on Sylvia Mann's canal boat ineast London, being there since November 2020 to claim asylum, for overstaying his visa and two incitement offenses related to the banner.[20][3] The arresting officer initially charged him under an incorrect code. An internal memo included a statement byMetropolitan Police Federation Chair Ken Marsh calling the banner "abhorrent, unacceptable, and dangerous behaviour" that could have resulted "in a tragedy." After he was released from the Barking and Dagenham Custody Centre on bail, he was detained by immigration authorities for overstaying his visa.[61][60] He pleaded not guilty and was convicted of one charge of causingintentional, harassment alarm or distress and he was fined £1,200.[62]
After Brown'sasylum claim was denied[63] in February 2024, he decided to fire his lawyer and appeal with another firm.[3] Brown served on theadvisory board of theInternational Modern Media Institute.[64]
His memoir,My Glorious Defeats: Hacktivist, Narcissist, Anonymous, was published byFarrar, Straus and Giroux in July 2024.[15][25]
Politically, Brown identifies as an anarchist and believes that the American government is corrupt and that the people are too complacent toward it.[2] He sees the movement within Anonymous as an interesting collective for carrying out anarchist struggles starting from 2006, and argues that a wave of hacking would be an effective way to spread anarchist ideas and causes.[2] He has described himself as an "anarchist revolutionary with a lust forinsurgency" who "wanted to become famous for overthrowing things."[50]
In 2019, Brown's Twitter account was permanently banned from Twitter four times. He has joked that he holds the record for most Twitter permanent bans. The first three bans were overturned.[65] The fourth and final ban was prompted by Brown tweeting that Assange should not be on trial but that he would "deserve to die by other, cleaner hands" if he knew ofErik Prince's alleged ties toRoger Stone.[66]
As of 2024 he is engaged to Sylvia Mann, a former editor ofFreedom, an anarchist publication.[3]
Brown has talked publicly about his history of drug use and treatment, includingmethylphenidate in the third grade until it made him suicidal, then latersertraline.[15] After moving toBrooklyn, he began smokingcrack cocaine, usingheroin and injectingsuboxone.[15][5] Brown has been diagnosed with severeADHD anddepression[1][5] and describes himself as anarcissist, a role that plays up for comedic effect.[67]
Brown has said he has been adrug addict "since early adolescence" and according toNew York Magazine, Brown "gave a talk at Rutgers after a night of smokingcrack and showed up high at the offices of theNew YorkObserver."[3] In 2010, Brown first beganoutpatient treatment for heroin addiction. In 2011, in response to concerns about his drug use, Brown said that “a lot of the rules don't apply to me. Myheroin addiction is much different than everyone else's.” In 2012, he was still struggling withwithdrawal.[5] That summer, Brown's mental state deteriorated and he has testified that he was going through withdrawal on the day he made the video he was convicted for,[68] and that he had induced a manic state by stopping takingPaxil.[67]
In 2020, Brown went to rehab.[15] After Brown's friend Kevin Gallagher died due tofentanyl and meth in June 2021, Brown's life spiraled and friendships and collaborations disintegrated as Brown accused them of being intelligence assets. In 2022, he attempted to commitsuicide.[3] In his memoirMy Glorious Defeats: Hacktivist, Narcissist, Anonymous, Brown talks about his drug abuse and said "It is a particularity of the opiate-withdrawal process that, in one's desperation, one becomes highly receptive to stray enthusiasms."[69]
Barrett Brown's case was included as aplot point in Season 2 of the U.S. TV seriesHouse of Cards because of input from Brown's friend and fellow Anonymous member,Gregg Housh.[70]
According to NPR, Brown could have served as a basis for Eliott from the TV seriesMr. Robot.[2][50]
According to Frédéric Bardeau and Nicolas Danet, Brown and Project PM are 'emblematic' of the trend within hacktivism aimed at organizing and giving coherence to their struggle.[71] This movement, which seeks to overcome the distance and massification inherent to the Internet by channeling it toward specific and clearly defined goals, gave rise to several subsequent hacktivist groups.[71]
Brown featured inRelatively Free, a 2016 short documentary byAlex Winter about Brown's drive to a halfway house after he was released from prison.[72] He has also appeared in the 2012 documentaryWe Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists, the 2014 documentaryThe Hacker Wars, and the 2021 documentaryThe Face of Anonymous.[73]
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