A Washington man has avoided prison time after he confessed to helping a Florida media consultant and former video journalist break into online platforms used by media companies, including one associated with Fox News.

At a hearing last week, a federal judge in Florida sentenced Washington resident Marco Gaudino, 25, to one year of house arrest and five years of supervised release, during which he will be under the direct supervision of U.S. Court probation officers.

Gaudino reached a plea deal with prosecutors last year, through which he admitted working with former Deadspin editor Timothy Burke to search the Internet for usernames and passwords into websites associated with major sports brands and media companies.

Some of their victims include the National Basketball Association and a broadcast platform called LiveU, which counted Fox News Media as one of its clients. Federal prosecutors say Gaudino passed Burke a username and password for LiveU, which allowed Burke to intercept and record video of unedited video transmissions of Fox News programs like “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”

Burke admits leaking videos from Carlson’s show to news outlets like Media Matters for America and Vice News, which published unflattering news stories that included previously-unbroadcast footage. One story focused on racist remarks made by rapper Kanye “Ye” West, which Fox left on the cutting room flor; in another story, Carlson is seen disparaging Fox Nation, a streaming platform that distributed one of his interview programs.

While Burke admits accessing and leaking the footage, his attorneys have characterized his actions as good digital journalism, and said he used a password that was available on the open Internet. Prosecutors say he misappropriated a login belonging to another news outlet to break into what was otherwise a password-protected website, one that he had no authority to access.

Gaudino originally faced five years in prison for his admitted role in the scheme. But a judge found his acceptance of responsibility, coupled with his willingness to work with prosecutors in their case against Burke, was enough to warrant a significant departure from the federal sentencing guidelines.

As a requirement of serving out his time in home detention and on supervised release, Gaudino will be subject to unspecified “Internet restrictions” and must allow police and probation officers to search him and his home at any time, even if they do not have a warrant. Gaudino will also be required to participate in a mental health treatment program, and he is forbidden from contacting Burke or anyone listed as a victim of his offenses, including Fox News Media.

Gaudino will not be required to pay restitution to his victims, even though federal prosecutors argued that his actions and Burke’s alleged crimes caused “hundreds of thousands of dollars” in losses.

Burke has vowed to take his case to trial, which has been delayed several times and is currently scheduled to begin in September. But the trial could be further delayed following Gaudino’s sentencing, with Burke’s criminal defense attorneys challenging certain claims raised by prosecutors, including the amount of money it cost each victim to respond to his alleged crimes.

If Burke takes his case to trial and loses, he will likely be on the hook for the full restitution amount, which he may never be able to fully repay. Last year, Burke’s lawyers argued his legal costs were mounting and that he may be unable to retain his private attorneys if the court did not subsidize their fees. (A judge refused the request, and Burke has managed to hang on to his attorneys through the pre-trial phase of his case.)

Separately, prosecutors are challenging at least one witness that Burke intends to call as part of his defense. In court filings this month, the U.S. Attorney’s Office conceded some testimony from computer forensics expert Adam Sharp may be pertinent to the case at hand, but said Burke intends to conflate his criminal actions with unrelated matters by explaining how the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine works and how users scrape materials from websites, which they argue is irrelevant to the case.

Prosecutors also said the court should prevent Burke and his attorneys from raising the defense that his self-imposed status as a “journalist” protected him from being charged under federal cybercrime laws.

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Read more:

• Judge scolds defense attorneys in Fox News leaks case
• Lawyer for Fox News leaker says AI to blame for errors in court filing
• Ex-Deadspin editor Tim Burke loses bid to have criminal case dismissed
• Co-conspirator in Timothy Burke hacking case pleads guilty
• Journalism groups walk back support for Fox News leaker