Reply to post: Re: So tomorrow Signal, Telegram?

US govt indicted me because I make privacy tools, says crypto-chat app CEO accused of helping drug smugglers

Michael Wojcik Silver badge

Re: So tomorrow Signal, Telegram?

It only establishes that a Grand Jury has found that sufficient evidence has been provided, showing that a crime may have been committed.

It only establishes that a grand jury was convened, frankly. In the US, Federal accusatory1 grand juries return indictments in nearly all cases.

"Indicted by a grand jury" is an extremely low barrier. Once you've been charged with an eligible crime by an AUSA, you're almost certain to be indicted.

1In the US Federal justice system, there are two types of grand juries: accusatory and investigatory. The latter may be convened for months or years, and in theory exists to compile a body of evidence in a complex case, though in practice they're mostly there to fill a room and pretend to listen when an AUSA occasionally tells them a subpoena has been issued. The former are exercises in rubber-stamping whatever a prosecutor tells them. They rarely have the relevant law explained to them, they can be presented with hearsay and other weak forms of evidence, they don't have to be presented with possibly-exculpatory evidence, etc.

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