The previous College of Michigan assistant soccer coach accused of hacking the e-mail, social media and cloud storage accounts of 1000’s of feminine athletes from throughout the nation and downloading their intimate photographs and movies requested a federal decide on Tuesday to throw out half of the case, arguing that the federal government is attempting to “turbocharge punishments for routine laptop trespass.”
Matthew Weiss, who spent 12 years within the NFL and was an offensive coordinator for considered one of faculty soccer’s most prestigious packages, was fired from the College of Michigan in 2023. He was indicted and pleaded not responsible in March to a number of counts of unauthorized laptop entry and a number of counts of aggravated id theft that, collectively, carry a most sentence of 9 a long time in jail.
Former NFL and College of Michigan assistant soccer coach Matt Weiss leaves federal court docket in Detroit, Mar. 24, 2025.
Paul Sancya/AP
Weiss’ protection accused federal prosecutors in Detroit of “overreach” by overcharging routine hacking as aggravated id theft, so Weiss may probably obtain a stiffer sentence.
“The federal government’s effort to rework laptop trespass into aggravated id theft should fail,” protection attorneys mentioned of their movement to dismiss. “Congress has created a cautious framework for punish laptop hacking, and the federal government’s novel idea conflicts with Congress’s design.”
“This case ought to as a substitute proceed as Congress supposed: As a prosecution below the Pc Fraud and Abuse Act, not the Aggravated Identification Theft statute,” the movement continued.
Prosecutors declare that Weiss, 42, gained unauthorized entry to pupil athlete databases of greater than 100 schools and universities that have been maintained by a third-party vendor and allegedly downloaded the personally identifiable data and medical knowledge of greater than 150,000 athletes. In accordance with the indictment, Weiss was then capable of entry the social media, e-mail, and cloud storage accounts of greater than 2,000 goal athletes and subsequently downloaded private, intimate digital images and movies that have been by no means supposed to be shared past intimate companions.
Weiss can be accused of illegally accessing data on 1,300 further college students, in line with the indictment.
The allegations date to 2015, at which period Weiss was an assistant coach for the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens, and continued by way of 2023 whereas he was teaching at Michigan, in line with the indictment.
A federal class-action lawsuit subsequently filed on behalf of nameless plaintiffs mentioned to be affected by Weiss’ alleged actions claims that officers on the College of Michigan, in addition to then-football coach Jim Harbaugh, realized of Weiss’ hacking in 2022 previous to a playoff sport and didn’t take any motion to deal with it.
Harbaugh mentioned in March after Weiss was indicted that he was “fully shocked” by the allegations and that he did not be taught of them till after Weiss had coached his closing sport in 2022.
ABC Information despatched a request for remark in June to College of Michigan officers, Weiss, Harbaugh, and the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers, for which Harbaugh is now the top coach, and didn’t obtain a response.
The protection criticized the federal government’s view of the case, which, they argued, is that coming into login credentials to entry one other individual’s account triggers the two-year minimal punishment mandated by the aggravated id theft statute.
“As an alternative of coming into login credentials after which viewing data in an account being a largely probation offense, all of the sudden a two-year necessary minimal penalty for every act of hacking applies,” the protection mentioned, partly. “Counsel are conscious of no court docket resolution ever accepting this idea.”
Prosecutors haven’t but responded to the protection movement.
