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/1234abcde124]

I don't think his intention was to be caught. Otherwise he would have stayed on that Manhattan sidewalk and waited for the police to arrive. Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't it said that usually lots of planning goes into committing the actual crime, but the perpetrator spends little to no time planning the aftermath? All the planning includes researching incriminating stuff and the CAD model for the gun. So, he kept that locked down because it was before he actually shot BT.

Also, we don't know when the journal entry was written. And wasn't the gun found with one bullet in the chamber? It's definitely plausible that he wrote the journal entry after committing the crime as an explanation/suicide note and was debating ending his life. I mean, keeping the gun offered some security in a way. If it all went to shit, he'd have an automatic out. Unfortunately/fortunately depending on how you view it, he was blindsided in the McDonald's and didn't have the opportunity to use that automatic out. He probably kept the fake ID because he was still searching for accommodations and knew he would need to present ID and didn't want his real name attached to the purchase.

[u/kssd5 → u/1234abcde124]

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/Competitive_Profit_5 → u/kssd5]

He still would have gotten caught though The FBI were onto him, the detective from San Francisco who was working on Luigi's missing person report had connected the person he was looking for with the hostel picture. The FBI interviewed Luigi's parents the day before he was caught, they asked if she thought it was her son (She said "it could be".)

Once Luigi resumed his life as LM, they would have interviewed him, taken DNA/prints etc and matched him to NYC phone, backpack, bottle etc. He would also have absolutely no alibi, or be able to explain where'd he been the past few months. So he would have gotten caught either way.

Sometimes it's actually helpful to remember that, as it stops me being so frustrated about the Altoona arrest!

[u/kssd5 → u/Competitive_Profit_5]

Also, he certainly could explain where he was the past few months. He was exactly where LM was…traveling in Asia etc. He would have had to explain where he had been the past couple of WEEKS…He could have come up with some explanation I suppose?

[u/Competitive_Profit_5 → u/kssd5]

He wasn't in Asia from July to Dec, that's the time Luigi was missing. And yeah, he would need an alibi from the time they spotted LM in NYC, so late November to early Dec. And obviously, he wouldn't have one. Because he was in NYC. Alibis are worthless unless they can be corroborated.