<i>it does seem strange that this case is so big and the charges against him so large.</i><p>Because he was caught up in the Feds surveillance of Anonymous.<p>It is at least worth noting that Keys says it wasn&#x27;t him. FTA:<p>-----<p>“Let’s be clear: I never passed a username or password to Anonymous,” he said.<p>Keys, who went on to serve as deputy social media editor for Reuters before his indictment in 2013, said he was investigating Anonymous in chatrooms when his username was used without his permission by parties unknown. Five years ago, Anonymous was in the news for its attacks on Visa and PayPal — and, according to Keys, he was just doing his job.<p>“It occurred to me that no one had looked into these guys,” he said. “They were talking at a level above my head. … Anybody could co-opt [the username] and it looks like in this case somebody did.”<p>Keys said the Tribune company — by then his former employer to whom he nonetheless pitched his story about Anonymous — should have supported him. This was about freedom of the press, not passwords.<p>“Tribune Media – what are they thinking?” he said. “Do they care about journalism at all? Do they care about the government prosecuting a journalist who decided to keep his sources undisclosed? That is beyond disgusting.”