The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which Issa chairs, has requested a briefing from the Justice Department on its prosecution of Swartz. “The crime and the punishment did not fit,” Issa said.
“I know that there is little I can say to abate the anger felt by those who believe that this office’s prosecution of Mr. Swartz was unwarranted and somehow led to the tragic result of him taking his own life,” she added.
Segal said he anticipates the main resistance to changing the CFAA will come from the Justice Department, which has consistently pushed to increase sentences for computer crimes. He argued that the department was trying to “map pre-Internet law onto the Internet.”
“That’s exactly the problem, we’ve got this intractable institution that’s not reflective, and obsessed with a blunt, binary conception of right and wrong,” Segal said of the Justice Department. “We’re trying to organize to figure out how to push back against their efforts, which I assume have already commenced.”
Rep. Bill Cassidy has his blood drawn by Alesha Barbour during a free hepatitis screening in the Rayburn House Office Building hosted by the Congressional Viral Hepatitis Caucus to recognize "National Viral Hepatitis Testing Day."
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