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IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Case No. 18-CR-303

v.
JACKSON COSKO,

Honorable Thomas F. Hogan

Defendant.

GOVERNMENT’S SENTENCING MEMORANDUM
The United States, by and through its attorney, the United States Attorney for the District
of Columbia, respectfully submits the following Sentencing Memorandum. The United States
submits that the defendant deliberately and maliciously committed serious crimes directed at
United States Senators and the Senate; that the defendant’s crimes imposed significant harm on
individual Senators, their families, staff, and the Senate; and that his crimes call out for a
significant sentence. In that context, and in view of the totality of the circumstances, the
government submits that the defendant should be sentenced to the high end of the range
recommended by the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines (“U.S.S.G.”), that is to say, 57 months in prison.
INTRODUCTION
The defendant has pleaded guilty to carrying out a months-long series of burglaries and
sophisticated data theft offenses directed at the office of United States Senator Maggie Hassan; to
a separate set of “doxxing” offenses1 through which he maliciously released personal information
of Senators Lindsay Graham, Orrin Hatch, Mike Lee, Rand Paul, and Mitch McConnell; and to
obstruction of justice, because he attempted to silence a witness by threatening to release the
1

“Doxxing” is the act of publishing private or identifying information about an individual on the
Internet, typically with malicious intent. As used in in this Memorandum, it refers to violations of
18 U.S.C. § 119 (Making Public Restricted Personal Information).
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private health information of a Senator’s children, because he corrupted another person and
persuaded her to attempt to “wipe down” the scene of his burglaries, and because he attempted to
destroy evidence in his own apartment. The defendant ultimately pleaded guilty to five felony
counts.
The defendant’s crimes spanned several months and reflected a deliberate malice and selfrighteous entitlement that distinguishes his offense conduct from purely impulsive, one-time
mistakes, and from offenses driven solely by intoxication or addition. For months, the defendant
engaged in the data-theft campaign targeting Senator Hassan’s office. Moreover, after a weekend
of mulling over the response (and the harm) caused by his doxxing Senators Lindsay Graham,
Orrin Hatch, Mike Lee, the defendant essentially decided that his targets deserved it, that he should
target Senators Paul and McConnell, and that he should commit additional doxxing offenses, even
writing an (undated) note to himself, suggesting a “contest of who to dox next[.]”
The defendant’s burglary and computer hacking campaign imposed significant harm on the
office of Senator Hassan and on the United States Senate as an institution – it represented the single
largest known theft of electronic data from the Senate; upon discovery of the defendant’s last
burglary, one Senate computer was immediately removed from service; and after it was discovered
that the defendant had placed secret keylogger devices on several other computers, another twelve
Senate computers had to be quarantined, examined, and replaced. The defendant’s doxxing
offenses imposed similarly significant harms, not only by causing substantial fear and distress
among the family members of the targeted Senators, but also by requiring the U.S. Capitol Police,
as well as local police agencies, to conduct directed uniformed patrols of the residences of affected
Senators.

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The defendant’s doxxing conduct also prompted unidentified third parties to direct
retaliatory abuse and racial harassment at another staffer in the House of Representatives –
someone who was entirely innocent, but because the defendant used a shared IP address to conduct
his doxxing, and because he hid his true identity (leading to speculation about the identity of the
perpetrator), third parties wrongly blamed the other staffer for the defendant’s conduct. They then
subjected her to voluminous online harassment, causing her to temporarily leave her house for
safety reasons – the very same type of harm that the defendant inflicted on his own targets.
As set forth below, the government respectfully submits that, in light of the determined,
prolonged, and considered nature of the defendant’s conduct, the harm imposed by his crimes, and
the fact that, under his plea agreement, he has received substantial benefit (that is, the government
not pursuing three additional doxxing counts under 18 U.S.C. § 119 and at least one count of
aggravated identity theft under 18 U.S.C. § 1028A), the defendant should be sentenced to the high
end of the already-reduced range under the applicable Guidelines, that is to say, that he should be
sentenced to 57 months in prison.
FACTUAL BACKGROUND
On April 5, 2019, the defendant accepted responsibility and pled guilty to two counts of
Making Public Restricted Personal Information, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 119, one count of
Computer Fraud, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(2), one count of Witness Tampering, in
violation of 18 U.S. C. § 1512(b)(3), and one count of Obstruction of Justice, in violation of 18
U.S.C. § 1512(b)(2)(B). In exchange for the defendant’s guilty plea, the government agreed to
dismiss the existing indictment and agreed not to charge the defendant with any further crimes,
including additional counts under 18 U.S.C. § 119 and 18 U.S.C. § 1028A.

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The Defendant’s Senate Employment and Termination
Beginning in 2017, the defendant served as a staffer and computer systems administrator
in the Office of Senator Hassan. As a system administrator, the defendant had an intimate
knowledge of, and broad access to, computer systems, administrative accounts, and related
security practices and measures (including passwords and usernames). The defendant was, in
essence, entrusted with access to all of the computer systems and data in the Senator’s office.
The defendant was terminated for performance-related reasons in May 2018.

The

defendant believed that his termination was unjust; he was indignant about having been forced to
leave the job; and he continued to be angry about his termination for months. Driven by that anger,
as well as concern about his prospects for future employment, the defendant took advantage of his
in-depth knowledge of the office’s computer security measures and practices, engaged in an
extensive computer fraud and data theft scheme that he carried out by repeatedly burglarizing
Senator Hassan’s Office. The defendant ultimately copied entire network drives, sorted and
organized sensitive data, and explored ways to use that data to his benefit.
Burglary & Data Theft
The defendant broke into Senator Hassan’s Office on at least four occasions, including on
or about July 26, 2018, August 6, 2018, and October 2, 2018. The defendant gained access to
Senator Hassan’s Office by unlawfully obtaining keys from SUBJECT A, a staffer who was (at
the time) employed in the Office. The defendant had a prior close relationship with SUBJECT A,
and the defendant continued that relationship after the termination of his employment. Initially,
the defendant took advantage of that relationship and obtained SUBJECT A’s keys without the
knowledge or permission of SUBJECT A. Once he obtained the keys, the defendant used them to
enter the Senator’s Office alone at night, with the specific intent of unlawfully accessing Senate-

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owned computers, for the express purpose of stealing electronic information – including login
credentials and other means of identification belonging to Senate employees.
During his repeated burglaries of Senator Hassan’s Office, and assisted by the insider
knowledge that he gained as a system administrator in that Office, the defendant obtained and took
dozens of means of identification (including network login credentials) belonging to at least six
employees of the Office of Senator Hassan – that is, his conduct constituted numerous instances
of identity theft. The defendant also surreptitiously installed “keylogger” devices on at least six
computers in Senator Hassan’s Office. The keylogger devices were designed to be unobtrusive,
legitimate looking devices that would go unnoticed by the individuals that were using the affected
computers. They were also designed to record the keystrokes that Senate staffers typed on their
Senate-owned computers – including the keystrokes that comprised usernames and passwords for
Senate computers and computer networks, as well as personal e-mail accounts.2
During the burglaries after the installation of the keyloggers, the defendant accessed the
keylogger devices and obtained the information they had recorded. The defendant was thus able
to identify the login credentials that provided access to Senate computers and computer networks.
The defendant then fraudulently used those stolen login credentials, unlawfully accessed Senate
computers and computer networks, and then stole data (including dozens of additional login
credentials for other electronic accounts for multiple victims), personal information, and electronic
mail belonging to Senator Hassan’s Office and its employees.

2

According to information provided by the defendant, he used keylogger devices which emitted
their own wireless networking (“Wi-Fi”) signal. In order to avoid detection, the defendant
configured the keyloggers so that their Wi-Fi signals would remain invisible to anyone who did
not know the network name. As a result of this configuration the U.S. Capitol Police have been
unable to find and access the keylogger signal, even after recovering the keylogger devices.
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During the burglaries, the defendant copied dozens of gigabytes of data from computers in
Senator Hassan’s Office, including dozens of usernames and passwords belonging to Senate
employees, credit card information belonging to Senate employees, social security numbers
belonging to Senate employees, personally identifying information (“PII”) belonging to hundreds
of other persons, and tens of thousands of e-mails and internal documents belonging to Senator
Hassan’s Office. The defendant also obtained contact information for numerous sitting U.S.
Senators, which included their home addresses and private phone numbers.
The defendant copied the stolen data onto multiple computers and electronic storage
devices. The defendant sorted and organized at least some of the data, including by compiling one
electronic folder that he designated as “high value.” This “high value” folder included, among
other items, the personal home addresses of multiple Senators.
There is evidence that the defendant considered various ways of using the stolen data to
extort Senator Hassan’s office, in exchange for a positive employment reference. Specifically,
during the course of the Summer of 2018, as he was repeatedly burglarizing the Senator’s office,
the defendant repeatedly asked a friend (referred to here as “Witness 4”) hypothetical questions
about whether or not certain extortionate uses of stolen data would be unlawful. Witness 4 said
that he repeatedly told the defendant not to do anything foolish.
The Defendant’s Doxxing Offenses
On September 27, 2018, while watching the televised broadcast of a United States Senate
hearing concerning the nomination of a United States Supreme Court Justice, the defendant
became angry at some of participants in the hearing, in particular Senators that were supportive of
the nomination. The defendant acted on that anger by maliciously publishing the personal home
addresses and telephone numbers of Senators Lindsay Graham, Orrin Hatch, and Mike Lee. The

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defendant published that information maliciously, with the intent to intimidate the Senators, and
with the knowledge and intent that others who learned of the information would then use the
information to intimidate the three aforementioned Senators, as well as members of their
immediate families, by using the information that the defendant had now made public.
Specifically, between about 5:15 p.m. and 5:55 p.m., the defendant used a computer that
was connected to the internet through a facility maintained by the House of Representatives and
visited the “Wikipedia” articles for each of those Senators. The defendant then edited those
Wikipedia articles – which were publicly available over the internet – so that the articles would
include the Senators’ home addresses and telephone numbers. The defendant also helped publicize
those edits, by posting or “re-tweeting” posts about his edits over Twitter.
During the next few days, news organizations reported on the publication of the abovelisted Senators’ personal information (and described the impact that the publication had upon the
Senators and their family members). Senator Rand Paul called for an investigation of the
defendant’s initial doxxing offenses. The defendant responded by maliciously publishing the
personal home addresses and telephone numbers of Senator Paul as well as Senate Majority Leader
Mitch McConnell, with the intent to intimidate them, and with the knowledge and intent that others
would use that information to intimidate them. Specifically, on October 1, 2018, at about 5:50
p.m., using a computer that was connected to the internet through a facility maintained by the
Senate, the defendant edited a “Wikipedia” article so that it would include Senator Paul’s home
address and phone number, as well the text, “He dares call for an investigation of ME?!?!?!? . . .
I am the Golden God! . . . Also It’s my legal right as an American to post his info . . . We are
malicious and hostile . . . Send us bitcoins . . . Wednesday night will be the doxxed next[.]”

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Finally, a few minutes later, using the same computer and internet connection, the
defendant published the home address and telephone number of Senator Mitch McConnell.
The evidence shows that the defendant knew that his conduct caused harm to others, and
that he derived satisfaction from media and other reports that his doxxing offense had caused
emotional distress. For example, it was publicly reported that the doxxing led to telephone calls
and harassment that caused emotional distress by the spouse of one of the defendant’s targets. The
defendant saw these reports and, on October 2, 2018, happily reported them to a friend (Witness
5), writing “Haha it ruined [a Senator’s] wifes [sic] birthday[.]” Similarly, in other conversations
with Witness 4, the defendant made clear that, in his opinion, the fact that his doxxing offenses
caused distress among the victims was “really funny.”
The Defendant’s Use of SUBJECT A’s Office Keys
During the Summer of 2018, the defendant was a friend of SUBJECT A, who was
employed by Senator Hassan at the time. The defendant spent time socially with SUBEJCT A.
According to the defendant, on at least one occasion in July 2018, he took SUBJECT A’s office
keys, without SUBJECT A’s permission or knowledge. At some point after, SUBJECT A realized
that the defendant had taken her keys and then asked the defendant about the issue. According to
SUBJECT A, when the defendant responded with a cryptic non-answer to her question,
SUBJECT A did not confront him, and did not explicitly know what the defendant had done.
In August 2018, SUBJECT A needed money to make a rent payment, and asked the
defendant for a loan. When he lent her the money, the defendant told SUBJECT A that he expected
her to return the favor. According to SUBJECT A, at the time she believed that the defendant
meant that, at some unspecified point, he would ask to borrow her office keys again.

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Later, in September 2018, the defendant showed SUBJECT A that he possessed internal emails from Senator Hassan’s Office.

The e-mails, which were dated after the end of the

defendant’s employment, related to an internal matter at the Senator’s Office. Based on the content
of the e-mails as well as various statements by the defendant, SUBJECT A knew that the defendant
had stolen the e-mails, and that he had done so by unlawfully accessing Senate computers.
The Final Burglary & Obstruction
On October 2, 2018, the defendant directly asked SUBJECT A to lend him her office keys.
At that time, based on all of their previous interactions, SUBJECT A correctly believed that the
defendant wanted her keys so that he could unlawfully enter the Senator’s Office and unlawfully
access computers in the Senator’s Office. SUBJECT A believed that she “owed” the defendant a
favor, and, despite knowing the defendant’s intended use, she handed her keys over to the
defendant.
Shortly afterwards, the defendant used SUBJECT A’s key to open the locked office door
of Senator Hassan’s Office. Once inside, the defendant planned on unlawfully accessing a Senateowned computer that was used by Witness 3, an employee of Senator Hassan. When the defendant
entered the office, he went to Witness 3’s computer, used Witness 3’s login credentials (which the
defendant had previously stolen), and logged in to Witness 3’s computer. The defendant opened
a web-based e-mail application, which Witness 3 had never used, and attempted to review Witness
3’s e-mails. The defendant wanted to review those e-mails to determine whether or not Senator
Hassan’s Office had provided unfavorably employment references about him.
Shortly thereafter, while the defendant was typing at Witness 3’s keyboard and unlawfully
accessing Witness 3’s computer, Witness 2 entered Senator Hassan’s Office, and immediately
recognized the defendant as a person who did not have authority to be inside the Senator’s Office.

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The defendant used Witness 3’s keyboard, locked Witness 3’s computer, and fled. A few minutes
later, at 10:25 p.m., the defendant sent a threatening e-mail to Witness 2. The defendant sent the
e-mail from the address livefreeorpwn@gmail.com, an e-mail address that the defendant had
created to conceal his true identity, including in connection with other activities involving data
that the defendant had stolen from Senator Hassan’s Office. The e-mail to Witness 2 was directed
to Witness 2’s email account at Senator Hassan’s Office, and was titled, “I own EVERYTHING.”
The body of the e-mail stated, “If you tell anyone I will leak it all. Emails signal conversations
gmails. Senators children’s health information and socials.” The defendant’s reference to “signal
conversations” was a reference to the use of Signal, an encrypted messaging application. The
defendant’s reference to “socials” was a reference to social security numbers.
According to Witness 2, Witness 2 was deeply disturbed by the defendant’s threat, and
over having to report the incident to law enforcement.
Later that evening, after the defendant had returned home, the defendant began to plan to
destroy and conceal evidence of his crimes. The defendant wrote a note/checklist, reminding
himself to “Backup all files . . . Mail backup . . . Burn aliases . . . Wipe down comps[.]” The
defendant then attempted to actually delete electronic evidence, including electronic evidence of
his data theft from Senator Hassan’s Office, as well as evidence of his doxxing offenses. The items
that the defendant deleted data from included a laptop computer that the defendant had used to
“dox” the other Senators, and which he used to obtain and download stolen data from the Senator’s
Office.
The following morning, on October 3, 2018, the defendant met with SUBJECT A, to return
SUBJECT A’s key. During their meeting, and consistent with his handwritten note, the defendant
told SUBJECT A to wipe down all of the computers, keyboards, and computer mice, and to unplug

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the computers in Senator Hassan’s Office. SUBJECT A understood, and the defendant hoped, that
these actions would destroy latent fingerprints as well as electronic evidence of his unlawful
conduct, and prevent them from being available for any criminal and grand jury investigation.
SUBJECT A, who knew that the defendant had unlawfully entered Senator Hassan’s Office the
night before, did in fact attempt to “wipe down” computer keyboards and computer mouse devices,
but was unable to complete the task of unplugging the computers, because Witness 3 entered the
Office. SUBJECT A then texted the defendant, at about 8:28 a.m. on October 3, 2018, stating,
“Hey[.] So I was able to wipe down the keys and mouse but [Witness 3] was coming so I could
[not] do the other thing[.]” The defendant replied, “Thanks,” and SUBJECT A finished the
conversation by responding, “Np, sorry I couldn’t do everything.”
THE PLEA AGREEMENT
In the early stages of the case, the defendant accepted responsibility for his conduct and
agreed to be interviewed by law enforcement. In order to give credit for the defendant’s
cooperation and acceptance of responsibility, the government extended a plea offer that
significantly reduced the defendant’s potential sentencing exposure. Specifically, the government
extended a plea offer that permitted the defendant to plead guilty to two counts under 18 U.S.C.
§ 119, rather than five, and that permitted the defendant to avoid charges under 18 U.S.C. § 1028A.
If the defendant had been convicted of three additional doxxing counts, he would have
faced a higher recommended sentence under the Guidelines, because each violation of 18 U.S.C.
§ 119 would have constituted a separate “unit” under the grouping analysis required under
U.S.S.G. § 3D1.4. In addition to that increased sentencing range under the U.S.S.G. for the
doxxing, computer fraud, and obstruction counts, a conviction under 18 U.S.C. § 1028A would

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have required and additional two-year mandatory minimum sentence, which the Court would be
required to impose consecutive with the sentences for all other charges.
ARGUMENT
I.

Introduction

The government respectfully submits that a significant sentence is warranted under all of the
circumstances of the case. The defendant’s crimes were deliberate, malicious, and sustained over
a long period of time; his crimes caused serious harm to the United States Senate, to individual
Senators, and to their families and staff; and the defendant’s acceptance of responsibility is amply
reflected by the charge bargaining incorporated into the Plea Agreement.
II.

Application Of The Sentencing Guidelines
A. Legal Analysis
The Guidelines provide advisory recommendations which the courts “must consult . . . and

take . . . into account when sentencing,” United States v. Booker, 543 U.S. 220, 264 (2005),
defendants for violations of the United States Code. As the Supreme Court has explained, “[a]s a
matter of administration and to secure nationwide consistency, the Sentencing Guidelines should
be the starting point and the initial benchmark” in for determining the appropriate sentence. Gall
v. United States, 552 U.S. 38, 49 (2007).
B. The Presentence Investigation Report
a. Offense Level For Counts One and Two
As set forth in the Presentence Investigation Report (“PSR”), the Probation Office
determined that, after accounting for the applicable specific offense characteristics and a three-

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point deduction for the defendant’s acceptance of responsibility, the offense level for Counts One
and Two (the doxxing counts) is “23.”3 The government submits that this calculation is correct.
i. The PSR Correctly Applies U.S.S.G. § 3B1.3
The government anticipates that the defense will assert that the PSR erroneously applies a
two-level enhancement for “abuse of a position of trust” or use of a “special skill” under U.S.S.G.
§ 3B1.3. The government believes that the PSR correctly applies this enhancement. In an
objection submitted to the Probation Office, the defense argued that U.S.S.G. § 3B1.3 should not
apply, because the defendant “did not abuse any position of public or private trust,” because “at
the time of the offenses . . . Mr. Cosko was not employed with Senator Hassan’s office.” However,
the government believes that the defendant did abuse his position of trust, and that his offense
conduct required the application of special skills within the meaning of U.S.S.G. § 3B1.3.
First, the defendant’s offense conduct involved the abuse of a position of trust. Prior to his
termination, the defendant served as a computer systems administrator in the Office of Senator
Hassan. In connection with that position, the defendant was entrusted with an intimate knowledge
of, and broad access to, the computer systems, administrative accounts, and related security
measures (including passwords and usernames) in Senator Hassan’s Office. That is, precisely
because of his trusted position as the systems administrator, he had access to certain information
– network configurations, security measures, and login credentials – used in connection with his
offenses. The fact that the defendant was fired did not relieve him of his obligation to keep
confidential information confidential, nor did it authorize him to use that information for the
purpose of committing crimes.

3

As noted in the PSR, the defendant has fully accepted responsibility for his conduct in a timely
manner. The United States therefore moves for the additional one-level reduction in the
defendant’s offense level. The calculations in the PSR accounted for this motion.
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Moreover, in addition to abusing the knowledge that he gained from his previous position
as a systems administrator, the defendant carried out his crimes by applying unusual levels of skill
and sophistication concerning computer and cybersecurity practices. The defendant knew where
and how to obtain sophisticated “keylogger devices” that secretly recorded every keystroke on
computers in the Senator’s office; he knew how to configure them so that they would be difficult
to detect; and he knew where to place them so that members of Senator Hassan’s Office would not
notice them. These sophisticated keylogger devices were “designed to be unobtrusive, legitimate
looking devices that would go unnoticed” – and, in fact they did go unnoticed even after the
defendant’s arrest. To his credit, after his arrest the defendant ultimately told law enforcement
about the keyloggers, but that does not change the degree of their sophistication. In fact, even after
the defendant informed law enforcement about the keyloggers, and described their characteristics,
law enforcement remained unable to detect the wireless networks they transmitted.

The

government believes that the defendant’s use of these devices, in the manner and configuration
that he did, involved the use of a “special skill” set within the meaning of U.S.S.G. § 3B1.3.
ii. The PSR Correctly Applies U.S.S.G. § 3B1.3
The government anticipates that the defense will assert that the PSR erroneously applies a
two-level enhancement for obstruction of justice under U.S.S.G. § 3C1.1. The government
believes that the PSR correctly applies this enhancement. In an objection submitted to the
Probation Office, the defense argued, without explanation, that the obstruction of justice described
in the Statement of Offense applied only to Count Three, and not to Counts One and Two.
However, as set forth in the Statement of Offense, which the defendant signed, the
defendant plainly engaged in obstruction of justice relevant to Counts One and Two. Specifically,
the Statement of Offense provides that, after he returned to his residence on the night of October

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2, 2018, “the defendant began to plan to destroy and conceal evidence of his crimes. The defendant
wrote a note/checklist, reminding himself to “Backup all files . . . Mail backup . . . Burn aliases
. . . Wipe down comps[.]” The defendant then attempted to actually delete electronic evidence,
including electronic evidence of his data theft from Senator Hassan’s Office, as well as evidence
of his doxxing offenses. The items that the defendant deleted data from included a laptop computer
that the defendant had used to “dox” the other Senators, and which he used to obtain and download
stolen data from the Senator’s Office.” Statement of Offense at 8-9. And he sent SUBJECT A
back to Senator Hassan’s Office specifically to destroy physical and digital evidence: to wipe down
all of the computers, keyboards, and computer mice, and to unplug the computers.
b. Grouping Analysis For Counts One, Two and Three
i. Count Three Does Not Group With Counts One And Two
In the Plea Agreement, the parties agreed that “Count 1, Count 2, and Count 3 each
constitutes a separate group” under the U.S.S.G. The parties further agreed “that Counts 1 and 2
each constitutes one Unit under U.S.S.G. § 3D1.4(a), and that Count 3 constitutes at least one-half
Unit,” and that “U.S.S.G. § 3D1.4 requires adding 3 levels to the offense level for Count 1 (based
on the one Unit from Count 1, one Unit from Count 2, and . . . one-half Unit from Count 3).”
Notwithstanding the plea agreement, the PSR concluded that Count Three should be
grouped with Counts One and Two, because, under U.S.S.G. § 3D1.2(c), “one of the counts
embodies conduct that is treated as a specific offense characteristic in, or other adjustment to, the
guideline applicable to another of the counts[.]” The Probation Office observed that U.S.S.G.
§ 2B1.1(18)(B) provides an enhancement for Count Three, because “the offense involved the
unauthorized public dissemination of personal information.”
The government agrees that the defendant’s offense conduct included the “unauthorized

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public dissemination of personal information.” However, the government respectfully submits
that U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1(18)(B) does not account for the offense conduct of Counts One and Two.
Counts One and Two are based on the defendant’s making public restricted personal information
with a particular criminal intent. That criminal intent – the heart of the violation of 18 U.S.C.
§ 119, the “intent to threaten, intimidate or incite the commission of a crime of violence” or the
“intent and knowledge” that the information published “will be used” to do so – is not “embodied”
in U.S.S.G. § 2B1.1(18)(B), which applies to any unauthorized dissemination of information of
any kind, and for any purpose. In that context, it applies an enhancement of an additional two
offense levels. If U.S.S.G. had been intended to cover the dissemination of information with the
knowledge and intent that it would be used to threaten, intimidate, or incite violence against public
officials or grand jurors, it would have been directed at that type of conduct (and likely would have
required more than two levels of enhancement).
ii. Conclusion As To Grouping
For the reasons set forth above, the government submits that Counts One, Two and Three
each constitute a separate group under U.S.S.G. § 3D1.2. As the parties agreed in the Plea
Agreement, the government believes that, under U.S.S.G. § 3D1.4(a), Count Three constitutes
either one-half or one whole unit. The government notes that, under U.S.S.G. § 3D1.4(a), whether
Count Three is one-half unit, or whether it constitutes a whole unit, the end result is the same: the
U.S.S.G. would require adding three offense levels to the defendant’s overall score.
For these reasons, the government submits that, rather than the two offense levels added
by the PSR, the grouping analysis under U.S.S.G. § 3D1.4 requires adding three offense levels.
c. The Defendant’s Combined Offense Level
For the reasons set forth above, the government submits that the PSR correctly calculates

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the offense level for Counts One and Two as 23, and the government further submits that U.S.S.G.
§ 3D1.4 requires adding an additional three offense levels (rather than the two added by the PSR),
resulting in a total combined offense level (prior to credit for acceptance of responsibility) of 26.
The government further submits that, after applying a three-level reduction for acceptance of
responsibility, the defendant’s final combined offense level is 23.
d. The Recommended Sentencing Range Under The U.S.S.G.
The government agrees with the PSR’s assessment that the defendant has a Criminal
History Score of 0. The government submits that, based on the final combined offense level of
23, the recommended sentencing range under the U.S.S.G. is 46 to 57 months in prison.
III.

The Statutory Sentencing Factors
As noted above, determining the recommended sentencing range under the U.S.S.G. is the

first of two required steps for sentencing under the United States Code. The second step requires
the court to consider that range, to consider other relevant factors set forth in the guidelines, and
to consider the factors set forth in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a). See, e.g., United States v. Hughes, 401
F.3d 540, 546 (4th Cir. 2005). These factors include (1) the nature and circumstances of the
offense; (2) the history and characteristics of the defendant; (3) the need to impose a sentence that
reflects the seriousness of the offense, promotes respect for the law, provides just punishment,
affords adequate deterrence, protects the public, and provides the defendant with needed
educational or vocational training and medical care; and (4) the need to avoid unwarranted
sentence disparities among defendants with similar records convicted of similar conduct.
IV.

The Government’s Recommended Sentence
The government believes that the Court should sentence the defendant to the high end of

the recommended sentencing range because the U.S.S.G. analysis would not otherwise capture the

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severity of the defendant’s conduct, would not reflect the nature of the harm imposed by the
defendant’s offenses, and does not account for the sustained and deliberate nature of his crimes.
V.

Analysis of the Statutory Sentencing Factors
1. Nature and Circumstances of the Offenses
The government submits that this factor weighs heavily in favor of a significant sentence.
First, the defendant’s burglary, doxxing, and computer fraud crimes were all committed

deliberately, intentionally, and over an extended period of time. These were not crimes committed
on an impulse, nor were they the product of a failure to think. The defendant plainly considered
his actions, talked about them with others, and then continued down a determined path.
Second, the defendant’s crimes were committed with a clear malicious intent toward other
people. These were not crimes of a regulatory nature – with respect to the burglary and data theft,
the defendant wanted revenge against his former employer, and he planned on extorting a positive
reference. Similarly, with respect to the doxxing conduct, the defendant wanted to punish people
who disagreed with his politics. Further, the defendant sought to extort a witness into silence, by
threatening to release the private health information about a Senator’s children.
Finally, although the defendant’s crimes will be addressed in a single hearing – and were
connected by the defendant’s continuing belief that he was always right and those who opposed
(or fired) him were always wrong, and by his belief that he could violate the sanctity of the United
States Senate at will and threaten individual Senators as he pleased – the data theft, doxxing, and
obstruction crimes were entirely distinct from one another, with distinct sets of victims, and
causing distinct sets of harm. The defendant’s burglary and data theft campaign targeted his former
employer, who, in the defendant’s view, should not have terminated his employment; his doxxing

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campaign targeted United States Senators because he did not agree with their politics; and his
witness tampering and obstruction of justice was a corrupt exercise in self-preservation.
2. History and Characteristics of the Offender
The defendant appears to be an intelligent and capable adult, having been raised by a good
family in a stable environment, having graduated from college and pursued a graduate degree, and
having enjoyed significant and loving support from both parents. While the defendant does have
a criminal history, and a history with illegal drug use, a review of the PSR shows that there are no
particularly mitigating circumstances in the defendant’s character or background.
3. The Need to Promote Respect for the Law, to Provide Just Punishment, to
Afford Adequate Deterrence, to Protect the Public
For the reasons set in Part 1 above, the government submits that the circumstances of this
case demand a significant sentence, in order to promote respect for the law, provide adequate
deterrence to the defendant and others, and to justly punish the defendant for his conduct, for the
harm that he imposed on others, and for the impact of his actions on the victims in this case.
In addition, the government notes that the defendant operated under the belief that he was
entitled to inflict emotional distress upon United States Senators and their families, simply because
they disagreed with the defendant and had different political views. The government believes that
there appears to have been an increase in similar criminal harassment, particularly through social
media channels, by people across the political spectrum. In fact, in this particular case, after the
defendant doxxed United States Senators based on their positions in a matter of public debate;
people on the other end of the political spectrum responded by attempting to identify the defendant,
and, after mis-identifying a different person (a staffer for a Member of the House of
Representatives), responded by harassing and threatening her, causing that innocent staffer to fear
for her safety. The government believes that a significant sentence would help to make clear that
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difference of political opinion do not entitle people to engage in politically motivated, criminal
attacks threatening elected officials with whom he disagrees, and would thereby encourage respect
for the law, and deter future criminal conduct.
4. The Need to Provide the Defendant with Educational or Vocational
Training or Medical Care
The defendant would no doubt benefit from additional education and counseling, but
nothing in the PSR shows that he has any unusual or particular need for education, training, or
medical care that would impact the appropriate sentence. The government would submit that the
defendant should be evaluated for any counseling or therapy that would benefit him, but does not
believe that the appropriate sentence is otherwise impacted by this statutory factor.
5. The Need to Avoid Unwarranted Sentence Disparities
The government believes its recommended sentence will avoid any unwarranted sentence
disparities. First, government is not aware of any case involving conduct that is distinctly similar
to the conduct in this unusual case – the defendant’s data theft alone is sui generis, and when
combined with the obstruction and doxxing offenses, there are few proper points of comparison.
This is particularly so because the U.S.S.G. calculates the offense level for computer fraud based
on economic harm, using the same Guideline that applies to commercial fraud, and while the
defendant’s offense conduct was malicious, it was not intended to cause economic harm. Second,
the government submits that the Court can adequately avoid any potentially unwarranted
sentencing disparities by imposing guidelines-compliant sentences.
CONCLUSION
For all of the foregoing reasons, the government respectfully requests that the Court
sentence the defendant to a total of 57 months in prison. The government further requests that the
Court sentence the defendant to three years of supervised release, and to pay the required special
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assessments of $100 for each of Counts One, Two, Three, Four, and Five. Finally, the government
requests that the terms of the defendant’s supervise release include a requirement that he stay away,
and refrain from contacting, the victim U.S. Senators and their families; a requirement that he stay
away from the U.S. Senate; and a requirement that he shall not engage in any unlawful activity
involving a computer.

Respectfully submitted,
ALESSIO D. EVANGELISTA
Attorney for the United States, Acting Under
Authority Conferred by 28 U.S.C. § 515

BY:

___/s/_________________________
Demian S. Ahn
DC Bar No. 491109
Tejpal S. Chawla
DC Bar No. 464012
Assistant United States Attorneys
United States Attorney’s Office
555 Fourth Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20530

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