Consumer's Use Tax: Did you purchase merchandise by Internet, telephone, or mail, or did you purchase any merchandise outside Virginia and pay no sales tax? If so, you may be required to pay Consumer's Use Tax. Be sure to report the applicable tax on Schedule ADJ.
The difference: this tax is paid yearly by the consumer rather than automatically collected by the vendor at point-of-sale.
1) Violating an identity theft law by "being in possession of the e-mails." With no evidence that he planned to misuse the information.
2) Violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse act via "unauthorized access to a computer". Even though the information was publicly available on AT&T's website (not behind any kind of protection, not even a password).
I almost hope he's convicted on the latter charge; the publicity that will generate may lead to sane revision of these laws.
No it's because Schneier has a conflict-of-interest since he's a hostile party in an ongoing lawsuit against the TSA. It makes sense that he would be excluded.
Why? Testifying before congress isn't like serving as a judge where conflict of interest is not permitted. Why shouldn't someone with a grievance be permitted to testify before Congress?
Where there's a will, there's a relative.