Following public outcry, the Jeff Sessions-led Department of Justice is scaling back their demand that web hosting provider DreamHost turn over the IP addresses, contact information, emails, and photos of anyone that has ever visited the site Disruptj20.org, a site used to help organize anti-Trump inauguration day protests.
Most of their amended request attempts to quell accusations that the department is engaged in a large-scale hunt for Trump enemies.
In their scaled back request for information, prosecutors stressed they were targeting only those who used the site to plot violence and not political dissidents who may have casually visited it. They said any information produced by the company that falls outside the scope of the warrant would be set aside, placed under seal and made unavailable to the government without a further court order. [...]
“Such modifications should amply address the First Amendment/Fourth Amendment reasonableness concerns raised by DreamHost,” prosecutors wrote in their filing.
The Justice Department alleges that the site was used to organize criminal riots on that day, resulting in broken windows and other property damage. The new filing requests site and visitor information only between site inception, in July, and the inauguration, and clarifies that their request does not include HTTP request logs—that is, the raw information about IP addresses visiting the site:
The Affidavit, the indictment that was returned by a Grand Jury, and the government's repeated statements made during public hearings in the pending criminal cases make clear that the government is focused on the criminal acts of defendants and co-conspirators, and not their political views - and certainly not the lawful activities of peaceful protesters. Similarly, the government is focused on the use of the Website to organize, to plan, and to effect a criminal act - that is, a riot. The government has no interest in seizing data from the Website that does not relate to this limited purpose.
The next hearing in the case will be tomorrow. In a blog post, DreamHost calls the amended filing "a huge win for internet privacy," but notes that "there are still a few issues that we consider to be problematic for a number of reasons." They say they'll be bringing up those remaining issues in tomorrow's hearing.