Court documents offer glimpse into conspiracy allegations against Tim Burke

TAMPA — Tim Burke and Marco Gaudino seem an unlikely pair.

Burke is 45, a prominent figure in media circles known for his ability to find and quickly disseminate obscure video clips. He is married to a Tampa City Council member and is active in the local civic scene.

Gaudino is 24 and lives near Seattle. His lawyer says he is fascinated with music and TV and spends “90% of his time in front of a computer screen.”

So it is peculiar that the pair, separated by two decades in age and more than 3,000 miles, became entangled this year in a complex federal criminal case. It centers on allegations that they conspired to use compromised computer credentials to obtain videos, pictures and information that wasn’t theirs.

Widely known are the clips that originated with Fox News. They showed ex-host Tucker Carlson in unvarnished pre- and post production moments of his defunct program, and an unaired segment of an interview Carlson did with Ye (formerly known as Kanye West) in which the rapper makes bizarre and antisemitic statements.

But the allegations involve more than just Fox. Federal court records refer to at least one other TV network and a professional sports league as victims, though none are mentioned by name.

Another contrast: Gaudino has vowed to face criminal consequences, while Burke remains defiant, rejecting the notion that he did anything wrong.

The full scope of their interactions, including precisely how Burke and Gaudino first encountered each other, is unclear. What’s known, as conveyed through their attorneys and in court documents filed in their respective cases, is that theirs was an online interplay.

“They know each other through Twitter,” said Burke’s attorney, Mark Rasch. “They only know each other’s Twitter handles.”

Burke, the proprietor of Burke Communications, a media and political consulting company, is a prolific user of the social media platform now known as X. His handle, @bubbaprog, has more than 100,000 followers.

Gaudino’s handle is redacted in court records.

On Feb. 20, 2022, he sent Burke a Twitter message, court records state. It included a web address and a username and password for a computer server that belonged to a professional sports league.

Although the league is not named in court documents, it’s described as being headquartered in New York, with teams based across North America and partnerships with radio and TV stations.

Gaudino first obtained access to the sports league’s computer server sometime before 2020, when he got hold of login credentials for an archive website, according to a plea agreement filed in his case. On that archive website, he found a second username and password that allowed him to get into the server, which the league used to move files over the internet. This is known as a file transfer protocol, or FTP, server.

He told Burke the league used it for all footage they post to social media or send to their partners.

“I see,” Burke replied.

The next day, Burke logged into the server, records state.

Court documents quote messages the pair exchanged in the ensuing months. In some, Burke complained of slow file transfers from the server.

In June 2022, the pair discussed sharing login credentials, including ones that allowed access to another server, this one apparently belonging to a cable TV sports network, according to Guadino’s plea agreement. He sent Burke a list of apparent usernames.

“(The sports network) probably has the largest amount of ‘oh this s—t is cool’ files outside of graphics,” Gaudino wrote.

Later that summer, according to court records, Gaudino again sent Burke a link to a web address with a username and password, the indictment states. The credentials allowed access to a video streaming service that a TV network used. The network is referred to in court records as “Network-2.”

They both logged in, court records state.

The indictment states that throughout August, September and October of 2022, Burke logged in several times to both the sports league’s FTP server and the TV network’s video streaming service. It alleges that Burke saved various videos. They included footage that showed pre- and post-production conversations for planned news segments. One video showed “makeup applications” of a show host. He took files relating to a Seattle sports team, a former league player and the sports league’s Brazilian offshoot.

On Oct. 10, 2022, the indictment alleges, Burke disclosed a video that had been intercepted days earlier from “Network-1.” The video depicted an interview between “show host and guest.”

Although the network is not named, its description — a multinational news company headquartered in New York — sounds like Fox.

The document does not say with whom the video was shared. But the next day, Vice Media published a story about a series of video clips from Carlson’s interview with Ye.

Burke, the indictment states, later saved to his computer what was labeled an invoice, which included reference to an article about the same video clips, which was published Oct. 11.

On April 24, 2023, Burke tweeted an unaired video of Carlson apparently reacting to an email. On May 1, 2023, he tweeted two more videos with unaired footage of the then-fired Fox News host.

A week later, the FBI searched Burke’s home.

Indicted in February, Burke has maintained that he did nothing wrong. His work in finding and publishing obscure content is journalism, he and his attorneys say. They have decried the case as an infringement on his First Amendment rights.

But the prosecution’s case seems to hinge on Gaudino getting access to passwords that opened the door for Burke to enter internal websites.

Anthony Fargo, a media law professor at Indiana University Bloomington, said the problem is Burke seems far removed from the illegal conduct. One question for a court to consider, he said, is how much Burke knew about the source of the login credentials.

Another is whether Burke and Gaudino profited in some way from the alleged conspiracy, Fargo said. If Burke simply published the information to spread news, his conduct could be considered fair use under copyright law.

“I’m still struggling to find the crime here,” Fargo said.

Still unclear is whether anyone else has been implicated in the case, or if further criminal charges could be filed. The indictment against Burke states that he conspired with Gaudino “and other persons.”

Gaudino admitted in his plea agreement that his actions were illegal.

The username and password he used to access the sport’s league’s archived page came from a website that dealt unlawfully in such credentials, according to the plea agreement. He got hold of the credentials to access the “Network-2″ videos from an online acquaintance, the document states. Gaudino knew the acquaintance was not authorized to have them.

“He understands what he did was a crime,” his attorney, Adam Allen, said after Gaudino pleaded guilty last month. “And he understands that there’s consequences for what he did.”

Times staff writer Justin Garcia contributed to this report.