A federal judge on Wednesday arraigned a former Deadspin news editor on charges under a new indictment that accuses him of trespassing into a computer system, stealing materials belonging to Fox News and leaking them to the press three years ago.
The suspect, Timothy Burke, was not required to attend his arraignment this week after signing a waiver and entering a paper-based plea of not guilty, according to court records reviewed by The Desk. Federal prosecutors and Burke’s legal defense attorneys also did not attend the hearing in person, the records stated.
U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle, who arraigned Burke in absentia, is also the same judge who tossed numerous wiretapping-related charges last year that a grand jury originally approved in 2024. Mizelle said the wiretapping charges raised reasonable First Amendment concerns, but she allowed the other charges, including computer hacking counts, to stand.
Earlier this month, federal prosecutors obtained a superseding indictment that upheld computer hacking and conspiracy charges against Burke while narrowing the scope of the problematic wiretapping claims, documents obtained by The Desk showed.
Burke is accused of working with another man, Washington resident Marco Gaudino, to search the Internet for passwords that allowed both to access online services and computer systems used by professional sports organizations and media outlets.
One set of credentials that were accidentally published to the website of a CBS News Radio affiliate allowed Burke to access a service owned by LiveU called Matrix, where he found and recorded unaired video transmissions of Fox News programming, including shows hosted by then-Fox News personality Tucker Carlson.
Burke later distributed clips of what he recorded to other news outlets, including Media Matters for America and Vice News, which published them. Fox and LiveU conducted an internal investigation into the matter, and a forensic analysis turned up computer data that pointed back at Burke, according to people familiar with the matter.
Through his attorneys, Burke does not dispute finding the credentials or accessing the LiveU system, but claims no crime was committed because the Fox feeds — while located on a password-protected system — were not firmly encrypted. Because Burke found material that others considered newsworthy, his activities should be construed as digital journalism and not as a federal crime, his lawyers claim.
Prosecutors feel differently. In court records, they do not dispute that Burke once worked as an editor, but said his use of passwords that didn’t belong to him was clear criminal activity. The Tampa Bay Times noted that Burke stopped describing himself as a journalist while working as a political consultant, but added the word “journalist” to his social media biographies after news broke about a law enforcement raid on his home tied to the leaking of Fox News materials.
Burke’s attorneys — Michael Maddux and Mark Rasch — initially denied their client knew or met Gaudino, who admitted his role in the scheme and was given house arrest and probation after pleading guilty. Gaudino is expected to testify against Burke if the matter goes to trial.
Maddux and Rasch have declined multiple offers from The Desk for an interview. The U.S. Department of Justice says it cannot comment on the matter because of internal policies that prohibit news interviews while litigation is active.
In addition to being the latest litmus test that attempts to draw a clear boundary between criminal activity and legitimate journalism, the criminal case also — by accident — became an example of litigation in the era of artificial intelligence.
Last year, Mizelle reprimanded Maddux and Rasch for filing a motion that was littered with obvious errors, including incorrect citations of past litigation. Mizelle said the document was so problematic that it was entirely unreliable. Burke’s attorneys later admitted the motion was written with a commercially-available generative AI tool.
Burke is scheduled to go to trial early next year. He could earn several years in federal prison if convicted, but a judge will ultimately determine his sentence based on a number of factors, including any prior criminal history. Federal prosecutors are also hoping to permanently confiscate more than $1,000 paid for the Fox News clips and phones, computers and hard drives associated with the alleged crimes.
