Thread by @bradheath

An update on the slowest-moving criminal case I've ever covered. This guy pleaded guilty in 2007, then things got weird. Last week, almost 12 *years* after his plea, the case inched a bit closer to sentencing.
usatoday.com/story/news/nat…

The crux of the weirdness: He hired people outside of jail to gather information for him, then sold that info to others so they could pass it on to the feds for a sentence reduction. And he wanted his own sentence reduce, too, but the whole thing was too icky for DOJ.

Though in the process, DOJ said another informant (who bought info from the guy) was also paying someone on the outside who was gathering information that he could provide to the feds, but DOJ said this was totally different and not a problem. The judge did not agree.

This guy has been a very prolific snitch. So much so that DOJ once asked for a restraining order to keep him from trying to provide more information. (He also briefly sued me, got over it, then sent me letters offering me information about other people.)

In 2009, he asked a court to force DOJ to seek a lower sentence for him because of all his informing. On Friday, one day short of a decade after that motion was filed, a magistrate judge recommended that it be denied.

Here's the decision. The facts of the case are something: usatoday.com/documents/6194…

This guy has been in federal pretrial detention for almost 13 years. Because of his now very public record as an informant, he's spent a good stretch of that in isolation.

Here's the story. It was a weird one when I wrote it, and it's not gotten less weird since. usatoday.com/story/news/nat…

For those who've been shocked by various aspects of the Mueller investigation -- shady informants! questionable wiretaps! immense pressure to cooperate! feds overlooking things! -- this story offers a pretty good view into why none of it's shocking if you've been around a while.