John Cornyn Criticizes Eric Holder Over Aaron Swartz's Death [View all]

[Bjornsdotter]

I really hate when I agree with someone like Cornyn.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/18/john-cornyn-eric-holder-aaron-swartz_n_2505528.html#slide=1983522

WASHINGTON -- Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) sent a sharply worded letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Friday questioning the Department of Justice's prosecution of Internet activist Aaron Swartz, who was found dead of a suspected suicide last week after fighting federal hacking charges for two years.

Cornyn wrote that he was "saddened" by Swartz's "tragic" death, and raised aggressive questions about the appropriateness of the federal case against him. The office of U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz charged Swartz, 26, with 13 felony counts for downloading millions of academic journal articles from the online database JSTOR. Although the scope of the simultaneous downloads violated JSTOR's terms of service agreement, Swartz had legal access to the articles through his JSTOR account. JSTOR did not press charges against Swartz and urged the prosecution to drop their case against him.

Cornyn, the Senate minority whip, joins House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) in speaking out against the Swartz case. Issa has launched a probe into DOJ's handling of the affair, while Lofgren is pressing for legislation that would declassify terms of services violations as a crime. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) also issued a statement this week praising Swartz's character and life's work.