Papered to Death

At various key points during the prosecution, the prosecutors overwhelmed Ross and his lawyers with so much material that, had it been printed on paper, it could have literally crushed them to death.

The discovery—evidence the prosecutors might use at trial—was the first instance of this. Instead of providing only relevant information, the prosecution dumped everything that could conceivably be linked to the case, totaling four terabytes (or two billion typewritten pages). They also used a series of delay tactics and Ross did not get complete access to the evidence until a few months before trial began. In addition, the detention center staff often prevented Ross from reviewing it.

Because it was a near impossible task to view all the material in the short time provided, the defense was still sifting through it a year and a half after the trial ended. It was then that, buried in a copy of the Silk Road forum database, evidence was uncovered, proving that DPR had been logging into his accounts after Ross’s arrest, and that the data itself had been tampered with to conceal conversations between DPR and a law enforcement mole who was feeding him details of the government’s investigation.

Less than two weeks before trial began, the prosecution then dumped over 5,000 more pages of material covering the testimony of their first witness alone.[1] This was the first time the defense heard of the government’s lengthy investigation and how their main target as DPR (the top administrator of the site) was someone other than Ross (see Proof of Multiple DPRs). However, when Ross’s lawyer tried to use the information in cross-examination during trial, he was prevented, and the evidence was wrongfully hidden from Ross’s jury.

Throughout the trial, the prosecutors continuously introduced “hundreds of additional exhibits,”creating “for practical and legal purposes a continually moving target.”

“In fact, what began as only a few new exhibits—fewer than ten—…quickly snowballed into dozens of exhibits being added or modified every few days, with a total of approximately 230 new exhibits added after the deadline.”
– Joshua Dratel, Criminal Defense Attorney.[3]

The issue came to a head when, mid-trial, the prosecution added an entirely new witness to their list, who produced a “voluminous spreadsheet and an extraordinarily complex analysis of millions of bitcoin addresses and sophisticated computer software.”[4] They hid this from the defense until the last possible moment before their witness took the stand. Ross’s lawyer asked for “a brief adjournment so that a proper cross-examination could be prepared,” but the judge refused and forced him to proceed on the spot without preparation.[5]

The number of “new Government Exhibits nearly doubled in volume after trial started, with many of those new exhibits provided to the defense only minutes or hours before court began session.”
– Joshua Dratel, Criminal Defense Attorney.[6]

References