If I was a government spook I'd set up an email service, then make a big show of closing it down because the government. Then decide to make a big show of 'No, Security is paramount' and reopen my mail service.
Not saying this is what happened of course but without legislation all 'secure servers' must be considered corrupted or corruptible. There isn't a technical solution to trust.
..or even going into extreme tinfoil hat mode - how do we even know this is the same person. Again no technical solution
Edit: why the down vote? - perhaps a counter argument would be better, I'd like to be proved wrong.
Well, there is but it's not email and it's not as convenient as end to end encrypted messages. You just need to meet up once in a while -not a problem for most communication-and exchange random data which you use either to encrypt the whole message one time pad style, or piece by piece as passwords. One pair of random data per contact. Lavabit or spookmail or whoever don't get anything exciting to look at other than who is communicating.
but for a one time pad doesn't the trust happen by meeting the person? It's good for person to person exchanges for people you know, but as you say not for email.
Not saying this is what happened of course but without legislation all 'secure servers' must be considered corrupted or corruptible. There isn't a technical solution to trust.
..or even going into extreme tinfoil hat mode - how do we even know this is the same person. Again no technical solution
Edit: why the down vote? - perhaps a counter argument would be better, I'd like to be proved wrong.