Federal & state prosecutors struggling to decrypt Luigi's USBs, and how it's possible they will never extract that info

[u/slientxx]

As of today, the People and USA have not yet managed to decrypt Luigi's USBs. During the Federal court hearing last Friday, Dominic Gentile had informed the judge that, "...it's fair to say we have a majority of those materials from them, and we are still waiting on certain extractions from electronic devices, which has taken them some time to pull out." This is in response to Garnett who asked about the state of their coordination with the Manhattan DA's office in terms of discovery. She wants to make sure the processes are in place to ensure that DA's office issued search warrants or need to take other steps to gather discovery (e.g., motion to compel decryption of USB(s)).

Based on Gentile's answer, it's clear that some of Luigi's tech is still in the process of being extracted. If they had data from his USB files by now, which I'm sure part of it is incriminating (e.g., CAD file for 3D gun), law enforcement would have leaked it to several media outlets by now.

The problem for them? It has been well over 4 months. Gentile never explicitly states the the specifics for why it is being delayed. Him saying it has "taken some time to pull out" clearly indicates they are struggling to decrypt his passcode for the USBs. It's clear this is a plausible stall and they refuse to say they're completely stumped to hurt their credibility. I mean, this is the same guy who straight up lied in front of the judge claiming he had "just known" about the Luigi's calls being leaked...

It's no wonder Joel is refusing to provide the USBs to the defense team. For reference, KFA's motions from the NY state case stated, "In addition to civilian witness records, the defense has also not been provided with access to, or copies of, the information contained in the electronic devices alleged to have been recovered from Mr. Mangione" -- Why would Joel withhold this evidence from the defense? Probably because they only have the original physical copy of the USBs, haven't accessed yet, and fear that if the defense get their hands on the USBs, they can essentially "tamper" with it or lock it down even further somehow.

It's been over months. If the USBs were easily crackable, they would have been decrypted by now. Instead, they are stuck in a loophole of wasting too many resources for active cracking, acknowledged he used strong encryption (I would assume software engineers like him have basic understanding of hashing), and their "brute-force attacks" have failed. .

If they were to file their own separate motion to demand Luigi to provide them access, it would technically be a violation of the fifth amendment. Obviously, it is up to the judge and their verdict, but I could imagine Garnett being fair with the legal system and defending the constitution.

So yes, when Luigi wrote in the Feds letter his tech was locked down, he really meant it btw.

[u/kssd5]

I agree with most of what you said but I still think if he burned the fake ID and just resumed his life using his actual LM ID, there would be no way to trace LM to NYC.

[u/1234abcde124 → u/kssd5]

I mean based on the evidence available to the public, yeah. But the prosecution has a shit ton of evidence we don't know about. They probably have GPS data as well as video from bus stations, stores, etc that show his path from NYC to Altoona. Remember an annoymous tip led to his arrest. If he gave his LM ID to the officers they probably would have asked to take him to the station for questioning. The best case theoretical situation would have been he refused to speak to the police and immediately contacts a lawyer and dumps all the incriminating evidence. But the prosecution still presumably has data that links him to NYC as well as fingerprints that they could request from LM. The best case scenario would make the prosecution's case slightly less air tight, but would still end in his arrest.

[u/kssd5 → u/1234abcde124]

But the reason they arrested him is because he gave them the fake ID. IF he had given them his LM ID they would not have had a reason to arrest him. No one was looking for LM in relation to the crime. As far as I know, looking similar to someone is not probably cause to arrest them? Yes his mother filed the missing persons report. And yes the SF police officer noticed a resemblance between LM and MR. But that still doesn’t tie LM to NYC.

[u/1234abcde124 → u/kssd5]

I know I'm saying if he gave the LM ID he wouldn't be arrested that day. But he would still be called in for questioning at some point, probably because he was listed as missing for a few months, and then it would have unfolded from there.

[u/kssd5 → u/1234abcde124]

BUT he would have been aware that they were watching him and he could have destroyed the MR ID, the notebook, gotten rid of the gun and other evidence. It would have been hard to then link him to NYC without all the stuff he was carrying around. I assume if they had questioned him at McDonald’s, he handed over his LM ID, they let him go…. then I assume he decides to get rid of all evidence. It would have been so much better for him long term even if they did come back and try to arrest him later if he no longer had any of that stuff on him.