The Department of Justice says 16 people have been arrested in the U.S., 5 arrests took place in Europe and more than 35 search warrants were executed, as part of an "ongoing investigation into coordinated cyber attacks against major companies and organizations."

DOJ says three criminal cases have been filed in the U.S., the main one being an Indictment in San Jose, concerning the cyberattack on Paypal in December, 2010, allegedly in retaliation for Paypal's blocking contributions to Wikileaks. 14 defendants have been charged in that case.

DOJ says the Indictment has been unsealed, and while it is not yet showing on the California docket, it is available on Colorado's ECF filing system, because one of the defendants, Vincent Kershaw, was arrested here and appeared in court today. You can read it here.

The other two cases are in the Middle District of Florida and the District of New Jersey, where individual complaints were filed against the two other arrestees. The Florida case involves the June, 2011 hacking of the Tampa Bay InfraGard website. "InfraGard is a public-private partnership for critical infrastructure protection sponsored by the FBI with chapters in all 50 states." [More...]

Sean Hoare, the first journalist to expose the phone hacking scandal and Andy Coulson, has been found dead at his home. Hoare originally went to the New York Times with the story. He recently disclosed that reporters paid police to be able to "ping" the phones of celebrities.

He said journalists were able to use a technique called "pinging" which measured the distance between mobile handsets and a number of phone masts to pinpoint its location.

Hoare gave further details about the use of "pinging" to the Guardian last week. He described how reporters would ask a news desk executive to obtain the location of a target: "Within 15 to 30 minutes someone on the news desk would come back and say 'right that's where they are.'"

More on the pinging here. [More...]

Scotland Yard Chief Paul Stephenson's resignation statement, via the New York Times, as a result of the phone hacking scandal. Earlier today, Rebekkah Brooks was arrested when she showed up at police headquarters, thinking she was just going to answer questions.

Via the Daily Beast, The Man Who Busted Murdoch (Nick Davies.)

Here is the transcript of the final day of the Roger Clemens trial, which ended with a mistrial after the Government played a video and showed a transcript to the jury containing the very statements of Andrew Pettitte's wife Laura that only a week earlier, the Court had ruled inadmissible.

There was no snafu, no playing of the wrong tape, and no forgetting to edit or redact the tape and transcript. The Government acted deliberately. [More...]

Reading news reports of the mistrial declared in the Roger Clemens perjury trial, one is left wondering how did the Government not know what was in its own exhibit? As if some paralegal or tech person on the Government team failed to properly edit a videotape shown to the jury.

This was a case the Government not only knew was being closely watched by millions, but a case on which it had a team of prosecutors, backed by investigators, paralegals and technology experts to assist with exhibits. There was even an FBI agent, their lead agent, sitting at counsel table.

It strains credulity to suggest that prosecutors didn't review Clemons entire hearing testimony and carefully select the portions they thought would bring them the most bang for the buck, and then have a video prepared of those segments to introduce as an exhibit for the jury. [More...]

Major props to Christine Pelisek, Terry Greene Sterling and Christopher Dickey of The Daily Beast, who discovered the identity of the jailed fiance/husband of the hotel maid in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn case. He is Amara Tarawally, 35. Yesterday, Daily Beast reporters interviewed him at the Arizona immigration center.

Tarawally himself was arrested in July 2010 along with another African, a Mexican, and a U.S. citizen of Mexican descent, according to court records. Tarawally had produced almost $40,000 in cash to buy 114 pounds of marijuana from a man who turned out to be a police informant in Chandler, Arizona.

After a plea bargain, in which three felony charges were dropped and Tarawally copped to conspiracy to possess a large amount of cannabis, he served nine months in jail and was put on probation but immediately turned over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Tarawally is now behind the cinderblock walls and concertina-wire fences of a detention center in the desert town of Eloy, Arizona, awaiting a deportation decision.

The accuser's phone call in a Fulani dialect with Tarawally the day after the encounter with DSK may be the biggest problem for the state's case. Prosecutors believe she told him not to worry, she knew what she was doing and the man she accused had a lot of money. [More...]

Wired Magazine has released the full version of the instant messaging chat logs of Wikileaks suspect Pvt. Bradley Manning and Adrian Lamo.

Previously, Wired had published only portions of the logs, due to Manning's privacy interests. It's changed its mind. Why?

[I]ndependent reporting elsewhere has tipped the scale in favor of publishing. By all evidence, Manning is a figure of historic importance. Inasmuch as the conversations shed light on the personal pressures in Manning’s life at the time of his arrest, publishing the logs serves a valid news interest, and at this point we believe it will cause little additional harm to Manning’s privacy.

Schapelle Corby turned 34 today at the Kerokoban Jail in Bali, Indonesia, where's she serving a 20 year sentence for importing 4 kilos of marijuana to Bali, a charge she has always denied. There's new evidence it may have been planted by an airport baggage handler. More here.

Schapelle has served 6 1/2 years. She is under consideration for clemency, as are two of the defendants in the Bali 9 case whose death sentences have been upheld, one just last week. Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd was in Indonesia this week and urged clemency for all of them. [More...]

Alan Dershowitz has an op-ed today, The Criminal Trial is Not About Justice for the Victim, which is very much like the post I wrote the other day, The Meaning of a Not Guilty Verdict.

A lawyer for Dominique Strauss-Kahn has confirmed his client will not plead guilty to anything.

The letter from the accuser's lawyer to the DA seeking recusal and appointment of a special prosecutor is all grandstanding. In three and one half pages, he never even cites a statute or case supporting his position. He declares himself judge and jury by proclaiming that the evidence shows DSK is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.

What's he really up to? In my view, the letter is a pre-emptive strike at Vance's office in case they decide to charge his client with a crime for her admitted false statements to the grand jury or involvement in her jailed husband's financial crimes. By impugning the integrity of the DA's office, he's saying that any future charges against his client are the product of unfair bias. [More...]

Casey Anthony was sentenced to four years for lying to police and will be freed Wednesday, with credit for time served.

Juror No. 6 is willing to tell his story, but only for a price. He even has a publicist. Here's the letter. [More...]

I was driving to the jail to see a client when I heard on the radio the verdict would be announced at 2:15. The breathless commentators at HLN were in top form. One even announced Casey Anthony's parents were undoubtedly en route to the court, "hearts pounding in their chest" as if they were right there beside them. All of the commentators I heard predicted a guilty verdict -- citing the prosecution's closing argument. A few hedged their bets by saying juries are unpredictable. Not one called it for the defense. [More...]