BurtW... Did they reveal any methods or sources to you, on how they gathered evidence against you? Surely most of this evidence should have been acquired through
legal methods like subpoena and not through entrapment? { I did not see anything mentioned on this, from your other main thread on this subject? }
You bring up a very interesting topic. Another one of those TV myths everyone believes. The subject of entrapment.
tl;dr:
For all practical purposes there is no entrapment defense left.Over time this defense has been slowly eroded by case after case.
In the old days a person had to actually do a crime.
Then they were allowed to entice and the suspect had to do the crime.
Now if they shove the crime down your throat and you do not immediately refuse and report it while it is being shoved down your throat they can use that against you. Basically they can rape you and say you were asking for it.
In my case one of their undercover operatives solicited a large purchase of Bitcoins from me. I suggested that we do it at my bank. They refused (since it would blow their whole audio and video recording setup they had planned at the coffee shop). So I said that I would prefer to do it at my bank but OK we can do it at the coffee shop.
Later I was told that it was not entrapment because
the burden is on me to insisted on using the bank.The entrapment defense is a thing of the past.
A lot of "evidence" was collected through just asking for it:
They asked for and got all of my bank records for the last four years from every bank account of mine, my wife and my companies.
They asked for and got all of my phone records and all of my text messages (in and out and deleted).
They simply copied and pasted a lot of what I said on here.
Then they did a few undercover Bitcoin purchases which they followed me to, recorded, and then followed me from to see where I went next.
They put a tracker on my car to see where I went, who I met with, etc.
They interviewed some of my Bitcoin friends. They were scared to death and one even cough up most of his Bitcoins to make them go away.
They distorted the truth to match their narrative of who they thought I was (huge drug lord with millions in cash and Bitcoin). They, specifically the Homeland Security Agent in charge of investigating my case, were really hoping for a "Dread Pirate Roberts" size of bust for their resumes.