John Rivello, the man who allegedly sent a strobing .gif to journalist Kurt Eichenwald causing the epileptic Eichenwald to suffer a massive seizure, has been indicted on charges of assault with a deadly weapon—a charge that “carries a hate crime enhancement.”
The FBI arrested Rivello on March 17th, after the Dallas Police Department used inventive cyber-sleuthing (and a flurry of warrants) to find Rivello through his Apple iPhone 6 and iCloud accounts.
That arrest, however, was on a Federal cyberstalking charge. This new indictment is a second, more serious charge, leveled by Dallas County—and added after evidence emerged that Rivello pre-planned and researched his attack on Eichenwald, knowing Eichenwald had photosensitive epilepsy.
The grand jury also added a hate crime “enhancement” to the charge, indicating that they believe Rivello’s attack was anti-Semitic. The indictment document adds that the charge includes a “bias or prejudice against a group identified by race, ancestry, or religion, namely: persons of Jewish faith or descent.”
As of Monday, law enforcement had only revealed that Rivello used the Twitter handle, “@jew_goldstein” to Tweet a strobing .gif image to Eichenwald, which Eichenwald says caused him to have such a serious seizure that he was in the hospital for several days.
But, according to documents filed with the court on Tuesday, the FBI and DPD found evidence on Rivello’s iCloud account that Rivello had researched seizure-inducing techniques on the Internet, and had communicated his plan to assault Eichenwald with several other Twitter users.
“I know he has epilepsy,” “I hope this sends him into a seizure,” “let’s see if he dies,” Rivello told his co-conspirators using Twitter’s DM function, according to the charging documents. At least one responded that Eichenwald “deserves to have his liver pecked out by a pack of emus.”
Rivello’s lawyers said that Rivello has already taken responsibility and apologized for the attack, and that he should not face charges because he is a veteran. “He is seeking help from the VA,” read a statement from Rivello’s defense team, sent to media. “And we are proud to defend this young man who gave so much defending his country.”