BATON ROUGE, La. \u2014 A Louisiana private investigator accused of trying to illegally obtain Donald Trump\u2019s tax returns says he is a benevolent \u201cwhite hat hacker\u201d who tried to test and report a security flaw in a government website.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jordan Hamlett tried to discover \u201cout of sheer curiosity\u201d whether Trump\u2019s tax information could be accessed through a weakness in a U.S. Department of Education financial aid website\u2019s data retrieval tool, his attorney said in a court filing Oct. 26.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hamlett\u2019s lawyer, Michael Fiser, also said his client tried to call and notify the IRS about that flaw last September \u2014 before the presidential election \u2014 on the same day he tried to electronically access Trump\u2019s tax records.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHamlett abandoned the attempt to notify the IRS when he could not reach a human, only recorded messages,\u201d his attorney wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Authorities have said Hamlett wasn\u2019t able to get Trump\u2019s tax returns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hamlett, 32, awaits trial in December on a charge he misused a Social Security number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Federal prosecutors haven\u2019t offered any possible motives for Hamlett\u2019s alleged attempt to get Trump\u2019s tax records. But they\u2019re asking a judge to bar Hamlett\u2019s lawyer from presenting any evidence of a \u201cwhite hat\u201d defense at trial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt is essentially nothing more than a belated excuse for a crime,\u201d they wrote in a court filing last week. \u201cAs the law in this circuit makes clear, however, such after-the-fact excuses and self-justifications for crimes are irrelevant and immaterial.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a footnote, prosecutors explained the distinction between \u201cwhite hat\u201d and \u201cblack hat\u201d hackers. Black hats are the \u201cbad guys\u201d who violate computer security for personal gain, while white hats are the \u201cgood guys\u201d who employ the same methods but do it legally with permission from system owners, they wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
U.S. District Judge James Brady scheduled a hearing next Thursday on prosecutors\u2019 request.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fiser argued his client has a right to present evidence that he was a \u201cwhite hat hacker\u201d with no \u201cintent to deceive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe jury in Hamlett\u2019s case should be allowed to determine his guilt or innocence based on all the relevant evidence, not just the evidence cherry-picked by the government,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fiser said Hamlett liked to test security systems for weaknesses in his spare time and would notify system administrators if he found a system vulnerable to a security breach. Hamlett once discovered a security flaw that allowed for public access to the Livingston Parish Sheriff\u2019s Office\u2019s \u201craw\u201d reports on open investigations and exposed personal information about police officers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHamlett tipped the sheriff\u2019s office to the flaw and was met with thanks and appreciation, not an arrest,\u201d his attorney said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hamlett\u2019s attorney has accused agents of tricking his client by luring him to a Baton Rouge hotel where they questioned him for hours last October, less than two weeks before the election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hamlett immediately took credit for his \u201cgenius idea\u201d to seek Trump\u2019s tax returns from the financial aid website, Treasury Department Special Agent Samuel Johnson has testified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At that time, the agents did not know whether Hamlett had been successful in obtaining Trump\u2019s tax returns, prosecutors said. The agents feared a public release of the documents could influence the election, according to a transcript of court testimony.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Court records show federal investigators also wondered if Hamlett was working with anyone or planned to sell them or release them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every president since Jimmy Carter has released their tax returns in what has become an American tradition during presidential elections. Trump has refused to release his.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hamlett was arrested again in August after he allegedly violated conditions of his pretrial release. Prosecutors said he committed \u201cnumerous violations,\u201d including hacking into email and social media accounts of a man at the request of the man\u2019s wife. Hamlett also allegedly accessed the internet with devices that are not monitored.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Jordan Hamlett tried to discover \u201cout of sheer curiosity\u201d whether Trump\u2019s tax information could be accessed through a weakness in a U.S. Department of Education financial aid website\u2019s data retrieval tool, his attorney said in a court filing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":30183,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":10,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3879],"class_list":["post-14750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cyber"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"DMKGANPBGFCKRPD4JBIDBTMQLY","arc_canonical_url":"\/civilian\/2017\/10\/27\/attorney-white-hat-hacker-tried-to-get-trump-tax-returns\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n