Opinion ID: 4512408
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Investigative Background

Text: Investigation of Playpen The FBI seized Playpen’s servers in January 2015 and moved them to a government facility in Virginia. The FBI then hosted the website from this facility, hoping to identify its users. The FBI obtained a warrant from a magistrate judge in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (“NIT Warrant”), which authorized agents to install an NIT on Playpen’s servers to collect identifying information from the “activating computers . . . of any user or administrator who log[ged] into [Playpen] by entering a username and password.” Supp. App. at 89. The activating computer, “wherever located,” transmitted the information, including its IP address and host name, to the government facility in Virginia. Id. at 83, 90. The FBI deployed the NIT on Playpen’s servers from February 20, 2015 to March 4, 2015, during which 100,000 users accessed the website. 3 Investigation of Mr. Wagner Playpen user “soldiermike” logged into the website on February 28, 2015.3 The NIT identified soldiermike’s computer’s host name as “SFC-Gunner.” App. at 440. It also identified its IP address. Using subpoenaed records from the Tri-County Telephone Association, the FBI traced the IP address to Mr. Wagner and his residence in White City, Kansas. On September 15, 2015, the FBI obtained a warrant to search Mr. Wagner’s residence from a magistrate judge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Kansas (“Residence Warrant”). The warrant authorized agents to seize, among other items, computers used to “display or access information pertaining to a sexual interest in child pornography” or to “distribute, possess, or receive child pornography.” Supp. App. at 280. Six law enforcement agents executed the Residence Warrant. Upon arrival at the residence, Kansas Bureau of Investigation Special Agent Angie Jones informed Mr. Wagner and his wife that they were not under arrest and were free to leave. The Wagners agreed to speak with the agents. Agent Jones and FBI Special Agent Mike Daniels interviewed Mr. Wagner while his wife waited on the porch. The recorded, 43-minute interview began on a bench outside the home and moved to a police vehicle when it started to rain. Mr. 3 Playpen records later revealed that between January 31, 2015 and March 4, 2015, soldiermike logged into Playpen for eight hours and fifty-nine minutes. 4 Wagner told the agents he served in the military and retired as a sergeant first class in 2010 due to disability. He denied accessing child pornography on his computer but admitted to a past pornography addiction. He said that he and his wife were the only users of the family laptop, that no one had lived with them in the last year, and that no one else could access their wireless network. Agents in the home found child pornography on the laptop in a folder labeled “TOR.”4 Agents Jones and Daniels then conducted a second recorded interview of Mr. Wagner about the folder’s contents. He denied knowledge of the folder and asked the agents to leave. The agents finished executing the warrant and left without arresting him.