Typically, contradictory negative responses from government should be read as a bureaucrat checking off all the "no" boxes to keep work they think they shouldn't even be doing from coming back to their desks rather than evidence of a coverup or something being up. Alternative reading: We don't have it. Even if we did have it, we wouldn't be able to find it. Don't waste your time and mine by asking again, please
How about this related FBI interview?
This has a ring of truth to it. As mentioned before, bloodsports guys throw around pedo accusations like it's a game of rock-paper-scissors and they've discovered an unbeatable fourth object that's legal in the game and nobody else knows about it. Plus, look at that rambling, barely related "defense" we got that boiled down to "Ross is really just misunderstood, fellas" because someone said "all of your e-friends call people pedos constantly. You see why we'd believe that you did too, right?"
FOIAs have a lot of requirements on them, one of which is to provide an accurate response based on information available. As I stated previously, the response was contradictory, and a lawyer who specializes in FOIA requests and what-not filed an amended request to get an actual answer minus bureaucrat-ese. As for the FBI interview, I had the initial FOIA delivered by a friend who works in the Boston field office, who submited it on my behalf. That Friday he informed me that two agents would be visiting me to ask me some questions on "what I knew" about the entire thing, though he wasn't sure why and neither was I (we still aren't completely sure, truth be told). I was basically sat down with my lawyer present and told that they had a court order that had been signed off on to take my electronics to look through any of the information I may have on what I had asked for (they were interested, it seemed, in who had sent me the screenshot). I never got the impression they were looking specifically at JMK but rather the website as a whole. I had to sign an NDA because they showed me some information and, at the time, requested I take down the videos I had done on the subject. My lawyer said everything was good for the court order and while I could fight (and probably win) it would be at least a month before that happened, and I couldn't really be without my phone, tablet, and computer for that long, so I obliged. They did, however, promise to respond to my FOIA "soon", and I had it in writing that if it was not answered by May, or was answered not to my satisfaction that the videos could be returned to YouTube. I could not file another FOIA asking about anything I had seen, either. Basically, a bit of extortion by the feds (not exactly unheard of). The clarification request probably will not be answered in any case because they'll just say "asked and answered, please fuck off". Because I knew people were interested in those videos and them coming down immediately without a reason would garner some attention (including on Kiwi Farms) I explained what I could, which was vague. It was one of those things, though, where people say "provide proof" but you can't, and thus you're a liar who can't clear his name. It was a far-fetched story, something I admitted to and tried my best to answer questions on, but it was simply impossible to do so. And for the record, before anything else happened concerning returning the video to YouTube I checked with my lawyer who authorized it, though cautioned me to wait a week before doing so "to give them a chance to respond" to the clarification letter. To date, I haven't heard a damn thing about the videos being put back up, and they've been up since the beginning of February.
As I stated, I fucked up in
how handled it, namely in making it seem like I had verified everything and John Michael Kelly was a
legitimate pedophile when I hadn't. In private (meaning on Nick Rekieta's Discord server and literally anyone else who asked me in DMS) I said it hadn't been verified and I was working on it. I apologized for that, but I did
not apologize for putting it out there (I had sat on it since August to begin with and didn't post about it until January-ish) because, as I saw it, JMK said anythign newsworthy is worth being reported on and I saw this as newsworthy even as he leveled allegations of Nick Rekieta engaging in wire fraud (federal felony), accused me of aiding and abetting (another felony), and in general just threw out lies and libel about us because "it was newsworthy". That's all Weeb Wars related, though, and not part of this conversation.
Second, yes. Yelling "PEDOPHILE!" is the way that IBS personalities try to go after their enemies. Geekthulu did it with me, Tonka did it with Andy, and it'll keep going round and round. During the backlash of Geek, Ralph and Andy trying to "bust" a pedo ring on Twitter they actually said that "calling people pedophiles has lost all meaning because everyone's throwing it around" because people were accusing those three of being pedophiles for downloading the alleged child porn (for the record, I never did despite Geekthulu's insistence).