Police confiscate fired data scientist Rebekah Jones' computer after DoH complaint

[steve2470]

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

Link to tweet

https://www.sun-sentinel.com/coronavirus/fl-ne-whistleblower-search-warrant-20201207-rapzkgm7fnbujlhwzadunciigu-story.html

State police raided the home of a former Department of Health data scientist Monday morning who is accusing Florida officials of wrongfully firing her for refusing to manipulate COVID-19 statistics.

Rebekah Jones, a vocal critic of Gov. Ron DeSantis’ handling of the pandemic, tweeted a video showing officers entering her home with guns drawn.

snip

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement served a search warrant at Jones’ Tallahassee home in connection with an investigation that started Nov. 10, Gretl Plessinger, an FDLE spokeswoman, said in a prepared statement.

The Department of Health filed a complaint with FDLE regarding unauthorized access to a DOH messaging alert system used for emergencies, she said.

[ffr]

1. What country do you live in? Some authoritarian state where your life is in danger

Get out of there!

[dhill926]

2. hope this gets a LOT of exposure...

unacceptable...

[Blue Owl]

3. The GOP would freak out if you stormed in and tried to take their guns away

But the GOP is OK if they storm in and take your computers away?

[Biophilic]

4. I honestly don't know what to do with this and my emotions/thoughts about it

I couldn't even finish watching the video after the cop pulled his gun looking up the stairs where the husband and kids were. I'm still sort of mentally stuttering. What the hell are the guns for? Whatever this was it wasn't about a violent crime so why the guns?

We must change things in this country. I haven't felt ok about 'Defund the Police' but now I'm thinking maybe that is exactly what we need to do before the police and fascists take over this country. I'm not an alarmist normally, but this really, really upset me.

I don't know how to respond responsibly. I honestly don't know if I can face the next 47 days. Yeah, I'm pretty upset.

[niyad]

5. I hope to hell she had everything backed up. F'n jackboots! Guns??? Pointed at CHILDREN?????

[Native]

7. Yup. She has backups.

https://www.tallahassee.com/story/news/2020/12/07/agents-raid-home-fired-florida-data-scientist-who-built-covid-19-dashboard-rebekah-jones/6482817002/

[niyad]

9. My browser won't let me access the link.

[Native]

10. Here are some interesting tidbits

"FDLE began an investigation November 10, 2020, after receiving a complaint from the Department of Health (DOH) regarding unauthorized access to a Department of Health messaging system which is part of an emergency alert system, to be used for emergencies only," Plessinger said.

The DOH said recently that someone hacked the emergency communications channel. Jones told a reporter that she is not a hacker: "I don't know how to do that stuff."

The FDLE affidavit for the search warrant said a special agent spoke to a DOH official with the Preparedness and Response office about a suspected breach of the custom-made communications system for emergency management.

An unidentified subject gained access to the system and sent out a group text saying: "It's time to speak up before another 17,000 people are dead. You know this is wrong. You don't have to be a part of this. Be a hero. Speak out before it's too late."

The text message was sent from the ESF-8 mail account to 1,750 recipients before the software vendor could stop the message from being transmitted further, the affidavit said.

The ESF-8 account is the state's emergency support function for public health and medical services and is used by many people from several agencies, including DOH and Emergency Management.

"Once they are no longer associated with ESF-8 they are no longer authorized to access the multi-user group," the FDLE affidavit said. All authorized users use the same user name and password.

Jones told a reporter for the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida that her sources at DOH told her an email had gone out across the department from the ESF-8 email account around the time that five of eight team leaders had been fired.

Jones told the reporter that a series of firings and resignations in DOH, including recently departed public information officer Alberto Moscoso’s departure, were “a purge.”

“It's like a massacre. And those aren't the only people that have been fired or left,” she said.

Jones also said she has backups of the data and files that power her websites that were stored on the seized hardware.

"This is what happens to scientists who do their job honestly," Jones tweeted. "This is what happens to people who speak truth to power."

[niyad]

12. Thank you so much!

[Chainfire]

6. It is about sending a message.

The message is, fuck with the governor and face terror. You can either keep the party line, or we will come for you and your family. That is DeSantis. That is the Republican Party.

[tulipsandroses]

8. Fucking bastards. The indifference to human life, still baffles me. Almost 300K dead, and these

assholes are still not willing to say, hey we were wrong, lets course correct so we don't lose 300k more. No, we are going to terrorize someone and her family that is trying to show people the truth of how deadly this virus is. It will never be able to understand how cruel these people are.

[Midnight Writer]

11. If we had gone after Trump's tax returns with the same zeal ...?

We can't serve a subpoena, summon a witness, request documents from anyone in the Administration without triggering years of lawsuits, but we can jump right on it with a SWAT team when someone embarrasses a Republican official.

[jb5150]

13. Glad to see her website is back up and running ...

DeathSantis is doing everything he can to hide the numbers.