Greenville County Councilman Tony Trout returned to a federal courtroom in Greenville for a preliminary hearing Friday morning following his arrest earlier this week.
The U.S. Attorney's Office federal complaint and supporting affidavit, filed Wednesday, allege violations concerning the unauthorized access of computers by Trout.
Investigators say Trout illegally put spyware on county employees' computers to gain access to their personal files.
Friday morning an FBI agent testified that Trout used his 10 year old son's name to register for the hacking materials.
A federal judge says there is sufficient evidence to bring the case to jury. Trout told the judge he doesn't have the money to hire a lawyer so he needs the court to appoint one for him.
Wednesday Trout was released on a $25,000 personal recognizance bond.
After his release Wednesday, Trout spoke to a News Channel 7 reporter. He told us he was taken into custody that morning at Arby's on Butler Road in Mauldin where he was meeting his attorney.
He says he believes his phone was bugged because no one knew that's where he was going to be other than his lawyer. Agents took him into custody there.
Trout says he knew his arrest was coming.
He said he has so much stuff on the government and they're scared of him. He told us the government is corrupt all the way up to the US Attorneys office.
"There is no way in #### I'm pleading to anything. I can't wait to get everything out there and tell a jury, a 12 person jury," Trout told the media.
"I didn't realize how far up the good old boys network goes," Trout said.
Lottie Gibson stood up for Trout and is supporting him. She's a Greenville City Council member.
Joe Dill, Greenville County Councilman for District 17, spoke with us on Wednesday.
Dill says that he's not surprised by the arrest of Tony Trout.
"They had been investigating him for such a long time that I didn't know whether they were going to arrest him or not. I am just sorry that it had to happen. I've felt like the things that he done all along were against the law," Dill said.
Trout faces five years in prison and up to $250,000 fine if convicted.
Other stories:
Greenville County Councilman Drops $14K Claim Against Colleagues
Tony Trout Files Civil Complaint Against Councilmember
WEB EXCLUSIVE: Tony Trout Confronts Greenville County Council Members
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Greenville County Councilman Investigation
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Complete Primary Results For SC
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Computers Seized From Greenville Councilman
Web resources:
A gooogle search for Tony Trout
Tony Trout's page on greenvillecounty.org
Tony Trout's web site at tonytrout.com has been taken down. Click here, however, to see the google cache of the page from Sept. 28, 2008. Click here to see a Wayback Machine search for the site, which includes pages from 2007.
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