[tptacek]

I don't think that's accurate. My understanding is that Levison was confronted with a pen/trap (metadata-only) order for mail related to the Snowden account, refused it, and was then subjected to an escalating series of demands once the DOJ had "lost faith" in his cooperation.

Orin Kerr, who is one of Andrew Aurenheimer's attorneys in his appeal of felony CFAA charges, has a good starting point for what happened in the case, here:

http://www.volokh.com/2013/11/14/thoughts-doj-brief-lavabits...

[shmerl]

So why did he refuse the targeted request first? His reasons given later applied to his refusal to bulk data collection not to the targeted one.

[tptacek]

I don't know what this question has to do with anything I've said.

[shmerl]

See below: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7513078