Hammond Held In Contempt For Refusing To Answer Questions

Just months before he was to be released from federal prison where he is serving time for hacking intelligence firm Statfor and releasing information to WikiLeaks , activist and hacker Jeremy Hammond, was found to be in contempt of court for failing to answer questions before a grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia (EDVA).

Hammond pleaded guilty in May 2013 to exposing millions of emails in the infamous December 2011 hack of Austin, Texas-based Stratfor, which also included the theft of 60,000 credit card numbers from clients that the hackers purportedly used to make $700,000 worth of donations to charities.

I knew then that my actions could land me behind bars, yet I fought on anyway; after a dozen arrests and even a prior federal prison sentence for hacking, I chose once again to use my computer skills to attack the systems of the rich and powerful as part of the Anonymous federal case I am doing time for today,” Hammond said in a statement expressing outrage at the contempt charges so close to his scheduled release from prison. “When I pled guilty, I took responsibility for my actions and my actions alone. I never agreed to be debriefed or testify in any way, unlike the government’s informant Hector Monsegur, aka Sabu,” who only received a year of probation.

“In my case, the government, through its informant, Sabu, instigated numerous hacks, asking me to break into governments and companies all over the world,” Hammond said. “Nearly a decade later, this misconduct remains ignored. The NSA continues to surveil everyone and launch cyberattacks” while “Chelsea Manning and I are doing hard time in this dump for the “crime” of refusing to allow our spirits to break, after ‘serving’ our sentences for exposing government and corporate corruption.”