A federal judge has rejected a request by lawyers for accused hacker Jeremy Hammond to release the imprisoned activist into house arrest. Hammond is accused of being a member of the hacker group “Anonymous” and has been charged with hacking into the computers of the private intelligence firm Stratfor. The whistleblowing website WikiLeaks has continued to release the Stratfor documents, which number in the millions. Hammond’s supporters say the documents shed light on how the private intelligence firm monitors activists and spies for corporate clients. Jeremy Hammond has been held without bail or trial for more than eight months. His lawyers argued Tuesday the accused hacker would be unable to review the troves of digitized evidence related to the case from jail, but their request for his release was denied. Jeremy Hammond supporter Sue Crabtree defended his alleged actions.
Sue Crabtree: “The media calls Jeremy a hacker and a member of Anonymous. The courts and those pursuing his prosecution call him a criminal. But we call Jeremy a hero. And we ask, what crimes has Jeremy committed that haven’t equally exposed the crimes committed by the very state prosecuting him? And again we say, exposing the crimes of the state is not a crime.”