It comes with a heavy heart that we inform the HackThisSite community that our founder,
Jeremy Hammond, entered a guilty plea on charges levied against him in regards to the
Stratfor hack. As part of his plea bargain, Hammond may face
up to 10 years in prison.
This is an incredibly horrific display of the United States
anti-justice system because, as
Jeremy's statement claims, the government chose to use him as an example in their
show trial. This is exactly and precisely a show trial because, first and foremost, the presiding judge, Loretta Preska,
refused to recuse herself since
her own husband worked for Stratfor at the time of the incident. Literally, as a
direct victim of the case, she was the presiding judge over the proceedings which
denied Hammond's bail for no justifiable reason. Hammond released a statement that same day
while in solitary confinement for a non-violent crime.
Secondly, as
other media outlets have noticed, Hammond was treated
as a political prisoner. In his own statement, Hammond acknowledged that the government threatened to continually levy lawsuits against him, over and over, until he caved in. Jeremy Hammond did not enter a guilty plea, he broke under (legal) torture.
Much like Julian Assange, Bradley Manning, and Edward Snowden,
some consider Hammond to be a hero among few courageous enough to act. Unfortunately for Hammond, he was caught and the government decided to show what happens to citizens who rebel. Best of luck in prison, Jeremy.
(
Note: We want to make clear, as before, that HackThisSite has never been involved in Anonymous or Lulzsec operations, nor were we involved in the Stratfor hack. Furthermore, Jeremy Hammond has not been involved in the operations of HackThisSite for over 5 years.)