As was the case with my bail conditions, the federal “magistrate judge” denied Nobody’s bail initially and the defense had to appeal that “de novo” to the actual judge in the case, Joseph Normand Laplante. Laplante also happens to be the chief judge for the entire Federal District Church Court. Thus far Laplante has been much more reasonable than the magistrates, though the bail restrictions on the Crypto Six have varied wildly.
For instance, Aria DiMezzo is highly restricted on what websites she can visit and must ask permission from her probation officer to go to any sites that are outside her limited “whitelist”. However she has no restrictions on drug use. In contrast, I am able to go to any website except for sites for buying, selling, and trading cryptocurrency, am on home confinement, and am subject to random drug testing. I am allowed to use alcohol, though I prefer not to.
No co-defendants are allowed to speak with each other, though after filing motions with the court to remove the contact restriction between us, Aria and I were granted an exception by Laplante for the purposes of being able to perform and run our nationally syndicated radio show, “Free Talk Live“. I have a long list of people in addition to my co-defendants with whom I am prohibited from speaking. This includes my longtime co-host and co-minister in the Shire Free Church, Mark Edgington. As part of his bail, Nobody is also prohibited from speaking with the same list of people. Aria has no such restriction.
The BEARCAT bashed in Nobody’s front door.
At the de novo bail hearing, unlike the magistrate, Laplante didn’t seem concerned with Nobody’s statements on the recorded jail phone that seemed to be in favor of shooting police. He agreed with the defense that Nobody’s comments were just blowing off steam as Nobody was frustrated by the outrageous arrest and subsequent caging. Despite Laplante’s voiced opinion about Nobody’s lack of dangerousness, in a frustrating concession to the prosecution, he has restricted Nobody’s freedom of speech and prohibited him from making any public statements on media or at protest events. Here’s the relevant portion from page six of Nobody’s bail conditions:
Defendant shall refrain from the use of any social media platform to make any publicly viewable posts…
Defendant shall refrain from public speaking engagements on radio, television, or podcasts, and shall also refrain from “taking the mic” at public rallies or public events.
Federal District Church Court
It was stated during the bail hearing that the concern was not that Nobody himself would commit violence but that he might influence listeners or followers to do so. So now he has no freedom of speech. This despite an accused person supposedly being allowed to be “at liberty” prior to trial. Does the first amendment not apply to people on bail? Strangely, he had more free speech inside the cage at the Merrimack County Spiritual Retreat where he was held the last several months. Nobody could, and did, call in to Free Talk Live on more than one occasion – so long as Aria or I were not on the show. Now he is specifically prohibited from any audio or tv appearances. He had also, while in jail, begun a newsletter for his church. Will he even be able to continue it?
Arguably, the restrictions as-written don’t prohibit his newsletter or perhaps even blogging. However I wouldn’t blame him if he chose not to rather than risk a post to Free Keene being considered “social media”, violating bail and getting locked back up. Hopefully his attorneys will be fighting to get his right to free speech respected again. On the positive side, he’s not restricted on travel and can leave his home without permission from his federal handler.
So much for freedom of speech. That said, I’m glad Nobody’s finally out.
I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Simon Wood at New York Magazine for an in-depth feature-length story about The Crypto Six and the migration here to New Hampshire and Keene as the Mecca for cryptocurrency users.
The attack on the Crypto Six is more evidence that the libertarian migration to New Hampshire is a clear threat to the status quo. First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win. We’re solidly in the “fight you” phase. The Verge feature will hopefully raise awareness of the ongoing attack on liberty-loving activists here in New Hampshire and bring even more people to the front lines of peaceful activism here. It even mentions secession!
For years, Free Keene has been reporting on the uncensorable, decentralized, blockchain-based, media-sharing protocol, LBRY, and recommending it as an alternative to big tech platforms like YouTube. Our videos from YouTube have been mirrored there since 2018 via their awesome “YouTube Partner Program“, which easily allows anyone with a YouTube channel to import their channel’s content onto LBRY, and their new front-end video-sharing site, Odysee. On more than one occasion, our content being on Odysee/LBRY has allowed it to stay online when YouTube deleted it.
How can you help? If you haven’t yet, please create an account on Odysee and follow our channel there. We have over 20,000 followers on YouTube but just over 300 on Odysee, so your assistance there would be appreciated. Of course, share your favorite Free Keene videos from our Odysee channel instead of YouTube. Our full catalog is on Odysee. Finally, if you really want to support the LBRY network that backs Odysee, you should go ahead and download the LBRY.com app for your desktop/laptop. Then, every video you watch of ours there, you’ll become a seed for on the network, which helps ensure our videos stay readily available online. Please visit video.freekeene.com, which will take you right to our Odysee channel. Thank you!
Thank you to all the great bloggers here at Free Keene who continued cranking out the content while I was being held in jail for 69 days. Also thank you to everyone who is supporting the Crypto Six. Please don’t forget that Nobody is still behind bars after being denied bail. You can write to him at the address you can find on TheCryptoSix.com.
Aria DiMezzo, one of the Crypto6 raided on March 16, 2021 over selling of Bitcoin and co-host of the nationally syndicated radio show Free Talk Live speaks out on the US government’s attempt to oppress the worlds population through draconian attacks on financial freedom. Aria spoke at this years Porcupine Freedom Festival at Rogers Campground in Lancaster NH. It’s not just those selling Bitcoin that have something to fear, but all of us.
First they came for the socialists, and I DID speak out—
Even though I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I DID speak out—
Even though I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I DID speak out—
Even though I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me—and I realized speaking out wasn’t enough.
Migrate to the shire– because alone- and spread out we’re all helpless. Talk is cheap. However together we’re a force to be reckoned with and that’s the real reason the FBI is on the attack. The FBI is very afraid. Undoubtedly the FBI can attack a few free staters, but they’ve already ultimately lost the war whether they realize it yet or not. Win or lose any particular case in court and it does not matter. The publicity draws in far more people and with each new mover we inch closer to achieving our long term goal of freedom and liberty in our lifetime.
I also want to put out a special thank you to the FBI for without them we would not have been able to generate the amount of publicity this case has brought nor attracted a new generation of activist to the migration. For the first time in the history of the migration movement the Porcupine Freedom Festival sold out almost doubling that of any prior year.
