Man jailed for parole violations after refusing to decrypt his Tor node

For whatever it's worth, the Reddit story here says that the federal courts used "fraudulent warrants to jail my husband again". Maybe! The other side of that story, via PACER, is a detailed parole violation warrant (you can hear the marshal refer to it in the video); the violations in that warrant:

1. Admitting to using cannabis during supervised release

2. Failing to make scheduled restitution payments and to cooperate with the financial investigation that sets restitution payment amounts.

3. Falling out of contact with his probation officer, who attempted home visits to find him.

4. Opening several new lines of credit.

5. Using an unauthorized iPhone (all his Internet devices apparently have keyloggers as a condition of his release).

These read like kind of standard parole terms? I don't know what the hell happened to get him into this situation in the first place, though.

From reddit post, from transcript at https://rockenhaus.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/U.S.-v.-Ro...

     8 Q. Due to the nature of the offense charged being a
     9 computer-related crime, did he have specific
    10 restrictions on his pretrial release as it relates to
    11 his computer usage?
    12 A. Yes. One of the conditions was that he must
    13 participate in the Computer Restriction and Monitoring
    14 Program.
    15 Q. How is that program enforced?
    16 A. That program is enforced -- the defendant has to
    17 download a software program onto his computer or iPhone
    18 or whatever, any type of device that has access to the
    19 Internet. That information is -- the monitoring
    20 company, they monitor -- they are able to monitor what
    21 he is accessing on the Internet. And the Probation
    22 Officer has been allowed to review weekly reports about
    23 what sites he's accessing, things like that.
    24 Q. And is the defendant notified and made aware and
    25 provided with a document that states the terms of that
     1 agreement?
     2 A. Yes.

The use of an encrypted Tor node would likely be a violation of that restriction regardless of what is being accessed.

The chain would then appear to be: convicted of computer crime -> required computer monitoring software during supervision -> installed and used Tor -> supervision violation and revoked to prison.

As I understand it --- I haven't read deeply enough to confirm this, it's what I've pieced together from the Reddit thing --- the Tor stuff came long before any of this. What I gather is:

1. Back in 2014 this person committed a pretty grave computer offense, which was not at the time prosecuted.

2. Some time after that, he became a high-profile Tor relay operator.

3. Some time after that, he was asked to subvert those Tor relays by the DOJ.

4. In 2019 he was prosecuted for the computer offenses, and convicted.

5. In 2021, he was released on parole.

(I think there's a long string of parole issues after that, and then)

6. In 2025 he was accused by the probation office of violating his parole in a bunch of ways and taken into custody.

The setup of Tor has some specific dates in the transcript. Page 10

     3 Q. So, Ms. Routh, having been acknowledged of his
     4 obligations to monitor and pay for the service on
     5 August 29th, can you please tell the Court how
     6 Mr. Rockenhaus complied or didn't comply with the terms
     7 of his release?
     8 A. Yes. On September 22nd the defendant did
     9 successfully download the monitoring software program
    10 on his computer. On October 11th Officer Ramos
    11 contacted the defendant regarding his lack of computer
    12 usage. So he reviewed some reports and realized that
    13 nothing was appearing, indicating that he was using his
    14 computer.

Page 11 and 12

    22 So Mr. -- Officer Ramos spoke to Phillip
    23 Danford with IPPC Technology and he stated that, yes,
    24 the defendant had downloaded the software. They showed
    25 that on September 22nd he said that the defendant --
     1 they see that the defendant looking at, it's called the
     2 TOR Network website on September 23rd, which is where
     3 you download software to access the dark web.

If I read this correctly... in August he was required to install the monitoring software (likely within 1 month).

On September 22nd, 2019, the monitoring software was downloaded. On September 23rd, Tor was installed. No internet activity was detected for the remainder of September or October by the monitoring software.

I don't believe that 2 or 3 come into play in terms of the parole violations (including the subverting of the monitoring software).

It would have been extraordinarily dumb for someone on parole electronic monitoring to install Tor, but my understanding of Tor's role in the bigger story is that it's about stuff that was happening many years ago. There's nothing about Tor in the parole violation warrant; just that he had an unauthorized iPhone, and when they did a forensic inspection of it, there were no further violations discovered on that phone.