Max Vision: FBI pawn
The FBI called him their "equalizer" -- a security expert and confessed hacker who infiltrated the underground and took names at DEFCON. When he drew the line at bugging a friend, they threw the book at him.
Federal officials used threats and a false promise of leniency to lure computer security researcher and admitted cyber intruder Max Butler into becoming an undercover FBI informant, according to a defense motion filed in the case Tuesday.
It was only when Butler balked at covertly recording a friend and colleague, and instead sought advice from an attorney, that the government threw the book at him, the motion charges. "The government as much as promised him he would receive consideration," says defense attorney Jennifer Granick. "At least until he hired an attorney."
