He seems to be unfamiliar with the legal process, and really needs to get a lawyer. From the partial scans of the US attorney's letter, it sounds like a federal grand jury would like to subpoena him as a witness to testify about the gathering of AT&T subscriber email addresses and "electronic chip IDs" (I think the letter is technically incorrect). The letter informed him that if he failed to appear he might also have criminal charges filed against him.
This is a normal part of the process of a federal criminal investigation. What happens first is that a grand jury is formed. The jury investigates evidence, calls witnesses, and tries to determine if a crime has been committed, and if so, who committed the crime. Then, the grand jury might issue a federal indictment, or it might just determine that no crime was committed and drop the case completely.
If he or someone else is federally indicted, then he would be formally arrested and have to go to federal court to stand trial as a criminal defendent. It sounds like it has not gotten close to this point yet.
Edit: I also wanted to mention that you have no right to an attorney as a witness of a grand jury. You may choose to have an attorney represent you and be present, however, the financial burden is in no way the federal governments to provide one for you. IF you are charged, then you may receive a public defender if you have insufficient financial means to pay for your own defense.
Federal cases take months and years to prosecute. By refusing to participate with the grand jury, he might be opening himself up to the fact that another witness could implicate him and he might be indicted. Of course, there is also the saying "if nobody talks, everybody walks."
He really needs to get good legal counsel and decide if he wants to testify in front of the grand jury, and decide what he wants to say.
Also, he's not helping his cause any by speaking out on the web. Mentioning his past anti-semite ramblings is also probably not the best way to gather sympathy.
I also think he does a disservice to the security community as a whole to advocate black hat ideology at hacker conferences, and then talk about "responsible disclosure" and how he was just trying to protect the poor customers of AT&T. This seems to be rewriting history.
This is a normal part of the process of a federal criminal investigation. What happens first is that a grand jury is formed. The jury investigates evidence, calls witnesses, and tries to determine if a crime has been committed, and if so, who committed the crime. Then, the grand jury might issue a federal indictment, or it might just determine that no crime was committed and drop the case completely.
If he or someone else is federally indicted, then he would be formally arrested and have to go to federal court to stand trial as a criminal defendent. It sounds like it has not gotten close to this point yet.
Edit: I also wanted to mention that you have no right to an attorney as a witness of a grand jury. You may choose to have an attorney represent you and be present, however, the financial burden is in no way the federal governments to provide one for you. IF you are charged, then you may receive a public defender if you have insufficient financial means to pay for your own defense.
Federal cases take months and years to prosecute. By refusing to participate with the grand jury, he might be opening himself up to the fact that another witness could implicate him and he might be indicted. Of course, there is also the saying "if nobody talks, everybody walks."
He really needs to get good legal counsel and decide if he wants to testify in front of the grand jury, and decide what he wants to say.
Also, he's not helping his cause any by speaking out on the web. Mentioning his past anti-semite ramblings is also probably not the best way to gather sympathy.
I also think he does a disservice to the security community as a whole to advocate black hat ideology at hacker conferences, and then talk about "responsible disclosure" and how he was just trying to protect the poor customers of AT&T. This seems to be rewriting history.