U.S. Unseals Charges Against Five Alleged CJNG Leaders, Raises Reward for New Cartel Chief 
Nvidia Reportedly Eyes $13 Billion Hugging Face Acquisition 
BofA Names ASML Top Semiconductor Equipment Pick on Growth, Valuation 
UN Chief Raises Concern Over US Sanctions on ICC Officials 
OpenAI AI Agent Swarm Behind Hugging Face Hack 
Peru Court Frees Former President Ollanta Humala After Conviction Overturned 
Warner Bros. Discovery Shares Rise as Newsom Pushes Settlement in $110 Billion Merger Fight 
Google Changes EU Spam Policy Amid Antitrust Scrutiny 
Nvidia Eyes Perplexity Investment at $30 Billion Valuation 
U.S. Probes Apex Logistics Over Nvidia AI Chip Shipments to China 
Sun Pharma Wins U.S. Appeal in Pfizer Lipitor Antitrust Case 
Prince Harry, Elton John Ordered to Pay £9.54 Million in Daily Mail Legal Costs 
New Mexico Sues DOJ Over Unredacted Jeffrey Epstein Files Amid Ongoing Investigation 
Pinterest Stock Falls as CFO Julia Brau Donnelly Resigns 
Judge Rejects Minnesota Bid to Force ICE Agent Extradition 
Add as a preferred source on Google
Even though it had a suspect for violating anti-child pornography laws on the ropes, the US Department of Justice decided to drop the case it had because of its unwillingness to release details about an exploit that could break through a vulnerability at Tor. Privacy advocates and defense attorneys have been trying to get the exploit for a long time, but it would seem that the DOJ is unwilling to budge on anything.
The suspect in question is a school administrator in Vancouver, Canada named Jay Michaud, The Tech Portal reports. Michaud was arrested in 2015 for the suspicion of accessing a child pornography scene called Playpen in the dark web portal called Tor. He supposedly browsed over 100 threads that contained images and videos, which the DOJ had collected enough evidence of.
This was possible through the Tor exploit that the FBI had been using for years called NIT (network investigative technique). Based on what most security experts have been able to ascertain, NIT is a malware that basically breaks through the layers of security walls surrounding Tor, which allows it to maintain the anonymity of its users.
It was with NIT that the DOJ nabbed over 135 suspects all over the country for similar crimes as Michaud, many of whom are yet to be prosecuted. Based on how the case is being dropped right now, it would seem that these suspects have reason to hope that they won’t be prosecuted as well. As to why it’s actually being dropped, Annette Hayes, the federal prosecutor handling the case says that releasing NIT is not even worth considering.
"The government must now choose between disclosure of classified information and dismissal of its indictment,” Ms. Hayes said. “Disclosure is not currently an option. Dismissal without prejudice leaves open the possibility that the government could bring new charges should there come a time within the statute of limitations when and the government be in a position to provide the requested discovery."
