But they knew they were protecting someone under investigation for violations of the Espionage Act and theft of government property. It seems kind of shitty to not help find that person.
Yeah, because in the time frame this was going down, it would have been a totally unreasonable assumption that someone matching those particular crimes described Edward Snowden.
Of course they knew who they were looking for - it was necessary for that to be disclosed in order for the government to even demand the information in the first place. That's what a warrant is.
For as much was wrong with the government's request, it's first request was at least reasonable: specific knowledge on Edward Snowden. The inherent architecture of Lavabit rendered this request unreasonable, and things escalated from there.
Sure enough, the court documents and transcripts clearly have "target" followed by blacked out spaces just wide enough for Snowden, spoken by both lawyers and Mr. Levison. This happens dozens of times throughout the recently unsealed documents.
I didn't say they did or did not know who it was. I don't know if they knew or not. I responded to someone who claimed they didn't know as if that was an excuse. Whether they knew or not isn't even relevant for me. At a minimum, they at least knew what the person was under investigation for... which should have been enough.
