It was about ten degrees Fahrenheit at around 6am on March 16th, 2021 when dozens of armed agents from the FBI, IRS, USPS, ATF, and Keene Police swarmed onto the duplex containing the Free Talk Live studio. They smashed in windows and a front door, set off explosions, flew in drones, and held multiple peaceful bitcoin activists at gunpoint. Simultaneous raids were being conducted in multiple other locations, with six people arrested in total. They were since dubbed “the Crypto Six” by supporters.
One had her charges dropped and three have taken plea deals despite never harming another human being. Two remain, facing hundreds of years in prison for completely victimless, made-up financial “crimes” regarding bitcoin.
Now, more than a year later, the FBI has returned the surveillance DVRs they took from the property. This is some of the footage taken at the scene of the Free Talk Live studio in Keene, NH:
Mr Bitcoin & Bitcoin Gandhi Visit Federal Reserve Bank Of Boston In Support Of The Crypto6
The last month has been a busy one in the “Crypto Six” case. First, three of the Six took felony “wire fraud” plea deals after prosecutors threatened to load them up with even more victimless “crime” charges. Even though no one was actually defrauded out of any money or property, the three – Renee and Andy Spinella and Nobody – agreed to become federal felons, reluctantly admitting guilt to one count each of “wire fraud”, despite no one actually being defrauded out of money or property.
Unfortunately, even though the three are completely peaceful, honest people, now they will be saddled with felony convictions that makes them look dishonest. It’s understandable though, why they would take such a plea. The federal gang is a scary bunch of people and they know how to intimidate. Even when a defendant did nothing wrong, that doesn’t mean a jury will do the right thing and set the accused free. The supermajority of people charged criminally at the state or federal level will take the plea deal, simply because they see it as a way to make their suffering end. Or at least, so it seems in the moment. While it may end the current prosecution, it sets them up for failure later if they are ever arrested again, as then they have a felony conviction, so the next sentence will be even harder.
Though federal juries have surprisingly issued some “not guilty” verdicts in recent years, like the verdicts in the Michigan governor “kidnapping” cases and the Bundy ranch cases, generally juries are pretty obedient to the state, so it’s highly risky to take a case to trial. Plus, federal cases are frequently biased against the defense, like that of Ross Ulbricht, where they weren’t able to call many witnesses or make the case they wanted. So, I don’t blame my friends for admitting to “crimes” they didn’t commit just so they can have some predictability as to what is coming next for them. Nobody is expecting a verdict of “time served” for the six months he did behind bars last year prior to being granted bail in September. Renee is facing up to 18 months in prison and Andy is expecting some amount of probation, or so I hear. I’m still not allowed to speak with my friends under my bail conditions. Their sentencing dates are in late July.
The fourth of the Crypto Six, Colleen Rietmann, co-owner of Mighty Moose Mart in Keene, has had her charges dropped. Perhaps the feds did not want to be seen prosecuting a grandmother in front of a jury at the same time as they are trying to allege that Aria DiMezzo and I were victimizing elderly women caught in romance scams online.
NH’s Unmatched Bitcoin Community
After Aria and I refused to take the feds’ plea offer, since we’ve done nothing wrong, they followed through on their threat and brought a bunch of new charges against us in what is called a “superseding indictment”. If convicted of all the counts against me, I face up to 420 years in prison. All for “crimes” with no victim. Oh wait, the feds also filed something called an “Organizational Victim Statement”, and according to the attachment, they are claiming we have victimized… the banks! The list includes Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, TD Bank, and many other big banks and credit unions.
Curiously, during one of the plea deal hearings this month, the prosecutors admitted that there were no damages to the “victims”, so they couldn’t ask for any restitution as part of the sentencing. How exactly then were these banks “victimized” by fraud if no money or property was lost? I guess we’ll find out when the case goes to trial this November. As Nobody put it, he has been convicted of “contempt of bank”. Apparently it’s felony charges with up to 30 years in prison for anyone who hurts the banks’ feelings in the “free” country of America.
While it’s no fun to be under highly restrictive bail conditions – I have an ankle monitor on for nearly a year now – at least now all the feds’ cards are finally laid on the table and now we can construct our defense.
The Crypto Six case is an attack on our freedoms. It is an attack against freedom of speech, freedom of religion, libertarian activists in New Hampshire, and against cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. While we are not the first to be accused of victimless “crimes” for spreading Bitcoin, nearly all of those so accused in the past have taken the plea deals, out of fear for what could happen. Aria and I are going to trial and so the feds will actually have to put on their case for the first time, in a desperate attempt to prop up the ever-inflating US Dollar and the banking cartel. Bitcoin is not a crime!
Rep. Leah Cushman presents HB 1022 at the public hearing on 1/18/22
On January 12, 2022, Rep. Leah Cushman (R – NH) introduced New Hampshire HB 1022: an act permitting pharmacists to dispense the drug ivermectin by means of a standing order entered into by licensed healthcare professionals. The general argument is that many healthcare workers are unable to prescribe ivermectin, either because of hospital politics or outside pressures. This bill would override the need for a prescription for ivermectin, allowing everyone in New Hampshire to pick it up over-the-counter.
A public hearing for this bill took place on January 18, 2022. Rep. Cushman, House committee (Health, Human Services, & Elderly Affairs) members, doctors, and others took part in a lively discussion that spanned over two hours. The overall consensus appeared to be in favor of the bill, with a few speakers pleading that those who cannot (or do not) get the covid-19 vaccine need another readily-available, tried, and tested alternative.
The Benefits of Ivermectin Are Well Established
The only medicine for infectious diseases to win the Nobel Prize has recently been smeared in the mainstream media. Surprised? There are innumerable studies that have overwhelmingly shown the benefits of this drug to combat all types of disease. The difference is that now the media has portrayed it as livestock medicine, and nobody can seem to counteract the bad press–not even Joe Rogan.
However, most of those in attendance, including multiple committee members, fully supported pushing this bill further. Even those who believe that vaccines are the best option had to admit that withholding medicine to those who cannot or do not get the vaccine doesn’t make sense. In fact, people who have received the vaccine can benefit from ivermectin as well.
Dr. Paul Marik Was in Attendance
One speaker of note was Dr. Paul Marik, who traveled to the public hearing for NH HB 1022 all the way from Virginia.
The successes of the freedom migration to New Hampshire keep piling up. So much that our statist opponents cannot ignore or laugh at us anymore. Their posts on social media are a constant stream of frustration at their failures to impose more tyranny on the Granite State. Recently, leftist group “Granite State Matters” posted, “FREE STATERS plotted to invade and take over NH two decades ago. Their plan is working.”, when announcing a podcast episode about it. This, not long after the Hillsborough Democrats gave a 90-minute infomercial about the amazing success of the Free State Project and the various organizations libertarians have started or engaged with here in New Hampshire. There are a lot more such caterwauling posts from the statists than I can put here. To see it all, I recommend following @FreeStateNH on Twitter.
Granite State Matters is right. The Free Staters’ plan is working. It’s actually been working for quite a while, but since COVID happened the migration has kicked into overdrive as libertarians, voluntarists, and liberty-loving anarchists have begun moving here sooner and faster, thanks to state governments becoming super-tyrannical virtually overnight.
Concentrating liberty activists in one small, low-population state is effective. The Free State Project is no pie-in-the-sky, fanciful idea. It’s a real movement with nearly two-decades under its belt. It’s a proven success. Anyone paying attention knows the freedom migration to NH has had more wins in 15 years than the entire Libertarian Party has nationally in 50 years.
It’s no surprise that with the world’s largest concentration of libertarians on the planet, New Hampshire is the freest place in all of North America, and arguably the entire world. Indeed, recently released studies from CATO and the Frasier Institute bear this out with hard numbers and research.
NH #1 in 2021 “Freedom In the 50 States” Study
CATO’s study, Freedom in the 50 States, looks at both economic and personal freedoms in multiple categories, coming up with rankings for each category and the overall score. Overall, New Hampshire has reclaimed the number one spot, defeating Florida, which had somehow snagged the top slot from NH in the 2020 rankings. Though the study is released in 2021, anything that actually happened in 2020 and 2021 are not factored into the study as it takes time to gather the statistics. The study’s authors point out in their NH analysis that New Hampshire had some major advances in freedom in 2021, like Education Savings Accounts, and lowering and eliminating taxes, and they expect NH to put some distance between it and #2 Florida in the coming years. These advances are largely due to the dozens of Free Staters who have been elected to the state house and the tireless efforts of groups like the New Hampshire Liberty Alliance.
Not only did New Hampshire beat Florida in the CATO study, but in the 2021 Economic Freedom of North America study by the Frazier Institute – with data from 2019 – NH again took the top spot, beating #2 Florida when all US states, Canadian provinces, and Mexican states were considered. New Hampshire also took number one in their separate ranking looking at just state and local laws affecting freedom, with Tennessee taking the #2 spot there and Florida dropping to #3. The difference in the results are that the overall North America freedom rankings factors in Federal government restrictions and the rankings of just the states ignores Federal controls. New Hampshire wins in both rundowns!
We’ll even help you move-in!
Finally, thanks to the Free State Project‘s newsletter for pointing this one out, the “Taxpayer Return-on-Investment” rankings from Wallethub for 2021 show New Hampshire as the number one state, meaning not only do its inhabitants have an overall low tax burden, but that its government “services” are relatively high quality considering their low cost.
As the numbers of liberty migrants to NH continue to grow, it will get harder for the little tyrants to have any success expanding the state. They will continue to be frustrated and eventually, they’ll quit, as many already have. They they will leave New Hampshire for places where their meddling ways are common and welcome, like Massachusetts and New York. New York, by the way, is number 50 in both the Frazier and CATO studies. Libertarians who want a better life instantly and who are willing to work towards more freedom should move to New Hampshire as soon as possible. Here are 101 reasons why you should.
Don’t be fooled. Florida is not going to get more free and libertarians there have zero influence. Florida a police state. If you’re a conservative, move to Florida or Texas. If you’re a liberal, move to California or the other West Coast states. If you love liberty, there’s only one place on the planet with the largest and most successful liberty community, and that’s New Hampshire.
