This is a pretty small story and likely won’t get much media attention if at all outside of the gun community, but it actually has ramifications for all Americans.
It’s a somewhat complicated tale that I will try to condense down into the most important elements.
A man named Dan Hoover, who runs a gun-related YouTube channel was recently arrested by U.S. Marshals after being indicted by a grand jury. The full details of the indictment are not known, but much of it revolves around conspiracy charges related to a product known as a “key card” that was sold by another individual.
A “key card” in this context is essentially a piece of metal about the size of a business card. It has an outline of a part on it. That outline, if cut out and machined further, can be used to modify a standard AR-15 to fire full-auto.
Mind you, the outline of that part is easily found on the internet and the metal card has no other features to it. So it is essentially a drawing, however the ATF recently labeled that card as a “machine gun” and the seller of the card was arrested and awaiting trial.
Where Dan Hoover and his YouTube channel come into this is he accepted money to advertise the card on his channel. Once the maker of the card was arrested, Hoover stopped advertising the card.
But Hoover was still recently arrested on charges of conspiracy, even though he just ran advertisements for the item which at the time, was legal.
So in this case, even advertising a product in the past that is later deemed illegal can get you arrested. A very scary thought, but it gets worse.
After the maker of the key card was arrested, Dan Hoover started a Go Fund Me to help cover the legal fees. According to those close to Dan Hoover, part of the indictment is connected to his starting of the Go Fund Me and is the grounds for further conspiracy charges.
So in this case, someone started a Go Fund Me to pay for legal fees, someone who has not yet been convicted, and that person was charged with conspiracy simply for raising legal fees.
If that turns out to be true, it’s a very dangerous and chilling precedent. If Americans start being charged simply for raising legal fees to pay for someone’s defense who has not been convicted of any crime yet, it truly is frightening.
Everyone has a right to a legal defense, no matter the crime. And they have the right to obtain that money in any legal manner they choose, especially when they haven’t yet been convicted of any crime.
We’ll keep tabs on this story as it develops and hopefully post an update as more details emerge.
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