Ashley Madison customers face a host of potential repercussions after hackers stole and leaked their data, from embarrassment to divorce to, in some cases, the loss of a job. The latter is particularly worrisome for employees of the US government caught accessing their Ashley Madison accounts from work computers and IP addresses. But members of the military could face another very real threat: a court-martial for adultery.
In fact, emails released by the Ashley Madison hackers show that a military prosecutor for the Marine Corps approached the cheating site in 2012 with a subpoena seeking information for an adultery case.
"As I informed you this morning, I am a prosecutor detailed to a court-martial involving adultery, which is criminalized in the United States Armed Forces," 2nd Lt. Austin Booth wrote in an April 2012 email to Mike Dacks, general counsel for Avid Life Media, the parent company of Ashley Madison. "The accused Marine was an Ashley Madison customer. Through subpoena, we will request all relevant Ashley Madison account data, including but not limited to: profile information, billing history, uploaded or downloaded images, and private message activity with content."
Booth was a trial lawyer at the Marine Corps Depot Law Center at Parris Island in South Carolina at the time and is now a prosecutor at the Marine Corps Base in Quantico, Virginia.
Adultery can be prosecuted as a crime under Article 134 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which prohibits conduct that could discredit the armed forces or is prejudicial to maintaining order and discipline. But this can be difficult to prove unless the adultery involved a commanding officer and enlisted personnel or it involved an affair between two other members of the military that has a negative impact on morale.
Dacks indicated in an email to ALM CEO Noel Biderman that he thought the company should fight the subpoena.
"I say we fight this and further we can make this a real 'don't ask don't tell' style issue (like gays)," Dacks wrote, linking to a website discussing the relevant military law.
He also indicated that the military request was a "novel request for us."
Biderman replied that he was enthusiastic about the possibility of garnering some good public relations for the company by fighting the subpoena.
"Yes! Can we try to PR this?" he wrote.
A subsequent email from a company adviser asked Biderman if anyone had called the Marine Corps back to discuss the issue. Biderman replied, "Would rather talk about it offline—yes we called them."
The leaked emails don't reveal how the issue was resolved. Neither Ashley Madison nor Booth replied to requests for comment.
