(Ken Silva, Headline USA) In the wake of the controversial 2020 election results, a Trump supporter reportedly used the Switzerland-based Proton Mail to email Claire Woodall-Vogg, the executive director of the Milwaukee Election Commission.
“Hello Marxist Bitch. Thankfully the The Gateway Pundit brought your betrayal of Wisconsin and America to my attention, Fox News and Breitbart don’t do shit these days,” the Proton Mail user reportedly wrote, referencing The Gateway Pundit’s publication of an internal email from an election consultant Woodall-Vogg about “delivering just the margin needed at 3:00 a.m.”
“I hope you know there are consequences for your actions. I know a lot of information about you. I will have to think about what comes next,” the Trump supporter said.
The Trump supporter’s email didn’t contain a specific threat to Woodall-Vogg.
Nevertheless, the FBI began looking for the identity of the Trump supporter as part of an investigation into “harassment” against the Milwaukee election official. According to a report Tuesday from Forbes, the FBI managed to acquire data from Proton Technologies, the owner of Proton Mail, to kick off the hunt for the anonymous emailer.
“The FBI didn’t get much back from Proton, but it did receive the recovery and associated email addresses linked to the Proton Mail user,” Forbes reported, citing a warrant that it obtained.
“They proved crucial, enabling the FBI to find more information about the person online and conduct a sweep across the suspect’s internet accounts, including on Amazon, Apple, Coinbase, Google, PayPal and Spotify,” the publication said.
“The FBI didn’t make clear in the warrant why it needed to get account activity across the various platforms, though it was likely to gather further evidence.”
The Trump supporter was never charged over the matter, and Forbes withheld his name as a result.
Woodall-Vogg told Forbes that the case did not end up with any “breakthrough.” She reportedly said she was told that the suspect was “deemed not to have the means or intent to actually carry out any violent acts against me.”
As Forbes noted, Proton Mail touts itself as a pro-privacy service. Because it’s based in Switzerland, it boasts of not having to kowtow to American authorities.
But in this case, the FBI apparently went through Swiss authorities to obtain the Trump supporter’s data.
“The warrant didn’t detail what specific legal process the FBI used to get the information and Proton declined to comment on specific cases,” Forbes reported.
“Proton did say, however, that by Swiss law, for U.S. agencies to get information on Proton accounts, they have to go through Swiss authorities.”
Proton spokesperson Betsy Jones reportedly told Forbes that “illegal activity has no place on Proton’s platforms as is clearly stated in our terms and conditions. We employ several well-staffed teams that handle instances of abuse of our terms and conditions and swiftly and proactively disable accounts that are found to be in breach.
“Any information received would be limited to metadata, since email contents, attachments, files, calendar entries, etc. are all end-to-end encrypted and no-one, not even Proton, can access them.”
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
