MIT Delays Release of Aaron Swartz's Secret Service Files

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology filed a motion on Thursday to delay the release of the Secret Service files on Aaron Swartz, the late hacker and Internet freedom activist.

In an unusual and last-minute move, lawyers representing MIT successfully blocked the release of the files, under claims that the documents might identify MIT employees who may have helped the prosecution press criminal charges against Swartz. The first batch of files were scheduled for a Friday release after Wired's investigations editor Kevin Poulsen won a FOIA lawsuit

"I have never, in fifteen years of reporting, seen a non-governmental party argue for the right to interfere in a Freedom of Information Act release of government documents," Poulsen wrote in a post explaining the circumstances. "My lawyer has been litigating FOIA for decades, and he’s never encountered it eitherIt’s saddening to see an academic institution set this precedent."