4 key takeaways from new documents revealed in the Tim Burke case

Information has come at a trickle in the case against Tim Burke, a former journalist who now runs a media business and is married to Tampa City Council member Lynn Hurtak. It’s been almost a year since the FBI raided the couple’s home, seizing Burke’s computers and other devices.

Burke has been indicted on 14 federal crimes. He’s accused of conspiracy related to “utilizing compromised credentials to gain unauthorized access to protected computers, scouring those protected computers for electronic items and information, obtaining and stealing electronic items and information deemed desirable, organizing and exploiting some of those electronic items and information, and intercepting and disclosing contents of wire, oral and/or electronic video communications.”

New court documents obtained by the Tampa Bay Times provide additional details about the prosecution’s case, and an alleged co-conspirator who has entered into a plea deal.

We already know the case relates to content that Burke obtained of unaired clips of Fox News host Tucker Carlson making inappropriate remarks, and of Ye making antisemitic comments. But here are some takeaways from the latest documents, which shed more light into the overall investigation and provide fodder for those making predictions about Burke’s legal fate.

A guy named Marco Gaudino was feeding Burke credentials to access sites prosecutors claim were not authorized

Gaudino lives about as far from Tampa as one can get without leaving the lower 48 — in Seattle — and he’s a good two decades younger than Burke. Yet Gaudino found Burke on Feb. 20, 2022, according to the Times’ analysis of the court documents. On that date, he sent Burke a message including a web address along with a username and password for a computer server belonging to an unnamed professional sports league.

Burke then used the provided credentials to access the server.

Later that year, Burke and Gaudino discussed using additional credentials to access another server, this time an unnamed cable television sports network.

And according to the Times, Gaudino’s plea deal also explained that he provided Burke with a list of usernames, and later provided a username and password to access a video streaming service for “Network-2,” another unnamed television network.

Burke saved some of the accessed videos

Burke’s indictment outlines activity from August through October of 2022, during which time Burke logged in several times to both sports networks’ servers and to the television network’s streaming service. And in doing so, he reportedly saved several videos, including pre- and post-production conversations regarding news segments and a show host’s makeup application.

He also saved files involving a Seattle sports team as well as a former player for the league and a Brazilian offshoot.

It does not describe who the clips were shared with, but reference to “Network-1” described a multinational news company headquartered in New York that could be Fox. It says Burke intercepted a video from the network. While not specifically stated, the fact that Vice Media published a story about the video clips of Carlson and Ye the day after Burke said he obtained a video also suggests it relates to Fox.

Burke may have a good defense

Gaudino is resigned to his fate facing criminal consequences — Burke is not.

Gaudino admitted in his plea agreement that his actions were illegal and his deal included an explanation that the username and password he used to access one of the sport league’s pages came from a website that unlawfully provided such credentials. The plea deal also states that Gaudino obtained credentials for the “Network-2” server through an acquaintance he knew was not authorized to have them.

Given that Gaudino has admitted his actions were illegal could work against Burke. But there’s another side, including that Burke may have a defense simply resting on ignorance.

If he didn’t know the source of the login credentials it may be difficult to prove he knew he was using unauthorized credentials.

And if he wasn’t benefitting from accessing the servers, merely just providing news, he may have a defense centered on fair use under copyright law, according to an attorney the Times spoke with.

There’s still a lot to learn

What is perhaps the most important takeaway from the latest round of documents in this case is how much is still not known.

According to the Times’ report on the documents, there isn’t any information about Burke’s wife’s work computer, which the FBI seized for about 10-hours. Questions were raised about why the FBI had an interest in her official city of Tampa computer and why she never informed the city upon returning the computer for an upgrade shortly after the FBI returned it.

References to victims are also still incredibly vague, implying specificity may never come as it relates to videos obtained and shared.

There also are still questions surrounding whether others are still to be implicated — a reference to “other persons” suggests Burke worked with more than just Gaudino.