Shooter Jennings Threatens Federal Charges Against SCM

News

saving-country-musicOn Saturday, Shooter Jennings released a statement through his official Facebook page that accused I, Trigger of Saving Country Music, of participating in the hacking of one of his websites. The germane parts of the post are quoted below, while the entirety of Shooter’s statement can be found at the bottom of this page.

“Moonrunners would be the victim of an attack that would labor our site with malware and a virus…that would be downloaded upon the computer of each person that would visit Moonrunners…The hacker enlisted to do such a thing left his fingerprints all over the site. A few thin layers back we were able to match the IP address within a very close margin of that same person who “sneaker’d” SCM for vulnerability.

This is a federal offense of the biggest kind. These IP addresses have been logged and a case has been opened to investigate the actual steps that led from the cleaning of SCM to the hacking of Moonrunners. I’d be willing to bet that when we discover the actual identity of the IP address we’ve logged, we can match it to someone who posts on SCM.

There will be two options. Trigger, you come clean, or we lean on his hacker until he comes clean for you.”

Saving Country Music’s Official Response to Shooter’s Accusations

I, Kyle Stephen Coroneos, aka “Trigger” or “The Triggerman” from Saving Country Music, swear on my father’s grave, the grave of Christopher Coroneos Jr., who died the day before Christmas Eve 1982 when I was 5 years old, that I had absolutely, positively no involvement whatsoever with the hacking of any website, and especially any website associated, affiliated, or owned by Shooter Jennings. I also swear on my father’s grave that I had no affiliation, knowledge, or offered any material support to anyone who may have hacked any website, at any point.

Furthermore, I, Kyle Stephen Coroneos, aka “Trigger” or “The Triggerman” from Saving Country Music, swear on my father’s grave that if at any point, any evidence is presented that holds up in a court of law proving that I had any direct or indirect involvement with the hacking of any website, then I will completely and totally end the existence of Saving Country Music, take it offline, delete the entire archive, and do my best to clean any record of its existence in any public medium. I also encourage, if not plead with the public to take all of these preceding statements and spread them across the entirety of the internet and print media so as there is no question as to the seriousness and resoluteness of these statements I have made, and that nothing but the most dire consequences would result if they are ever found to be false.

I also declare my willingness to repeat these statements when looking at any individual dead in the eye, or with my hand on a Holy Bible, in a court of law, or when hooked up to a polygraph lie detector machine, so help me God.

Shooter Jennings is a boldface liar. He has absolutely, positively no evidence whatsoever to back up his spurious, irresponsible, and fictitious claims; a truth he admits himself in his own statement. All that has been provided up to this point to coincide with his damaging accusations are disjointed gobbledygook assertions that in no way are intuitively or technically sound. Furthermore Saving Country Music has proven, with evidence that would hold up in a court of law–and that Shooter Jennings himself has admitted to–that Shooter Jennings and his toadies have purposely lied to and mislead people on this very website in a premeditated, systemic, and long-term attempt to expressly and purposely undermine the integrity of Saving Country Music by perpetuating as many as 20 different aliases in the site’s comment sections, including impersonations of specific people, while also spreading other lies similar to the recent hacking accusation through both Shooter’s various internet properties and social network outlets.

Make no mistake, there is nothing that Saving Country Music is more proud of in its 5 years of service to music than its direct and vehement opposition of Shooter Jennings and his irresponsible, and damaging actions towards multiple entities and elements of the music community. It is the opinion of Saving Country Music that Shooter Jennings is the most dangerous, most deceptive artist that exists in the greater country music community, and his recent, irresponsible accusations, presented with absolutely no evidence, are further proof of his pattern of reckless and damaging behavior, if not evidence that a civil crime has been committed by his slanderous attempts to undermine a public enterprise.

And lastly, Shooter’s deceiving and devious attempts at friendship and positivity embedded in his accusations, and specifically his “if/or” statements threatening Saving Country Music with further action, including legal repercussions if it does not “come clean” about its activities involving the hacking of websites, is not just tantamount to blackmail and extortion, it is blackmail and extortion by definition.

Saving Country Music apologizes to all of its readers, proponents, sponsors, and any outside parties who have either been harmed or inconvenienced by the continuing incidences involving Shooter Jennings, and promises to do its best to mitigate any drama in the future. However, when accusations are leveled at Saving Country Music of this magnitude, and in a public forum, it is imperative they be addressed, and addressed in a public forum, to ensure the integrity of the Saving Country Music name.

A More In-Depth Explanation of the Situation

First off, as referenced above, you can read an in-depth and evidence-based analysis of how Shooter Jennings and his toadies lied and attempted to undermine this site ON THIS POST. You can also she where “Jashie P” admitted to using multiple aliases HERE, and Shooter admitted to using multiple aliases HERE.

Listen folks, Shooter Jennings is a self-professed conspiracy theorist, and to forward a conspiracy theory, you don’t need any proof, you simply just need to create doubt. And that is all Shooter is trying to do here. There is no evidence, nor will there ever be evidence, unless it is manufactured, which would be a further entrenching into the criminal nature of his accusation.

Anybody with even the most intermediate understanding of the internet can look at the fundamentals of Shooter’s accusations, and tell that they are false. Every single website is constantly under threats of hacking/cyber-attack/malware intrusions at any time. A website doesn’t need to have enemies to be under threat. As I type these words, Saving Country Music is under cyber-attack from multiple threats. This website goes offline intermittently about 5-6 times an hour, and experiences major outages on a daily basis because of all the spam and hacks attempting to exploit the site. Understand that over 99% of these threats are automated. There is not someone sitting behind a computer, specifically trying to hack into anyone’s site. Bots and spiders crawl the internet and specific websites all the time looking for openings to exploit. If Shooter and Jashie hadn’t been spending so much time on this website perpetuating 20 different aliases attempting to undermine it, and noticed that their own website was standing open to common internet threats, then maybe they wouldn’t have ended up with a hacked site.

A couple of specific things that Shooter said: “he had an outside source check SCM for hacking vulnerability.”

Never happened. I have no idea what this is about. Either this is Shooter fabricating specifics to make his story look more believable, or he has a source that is lying to him, possibly the person who is claiming to be the hacker.

“A few thin layers back we were able to match the IP address within a very close margin of that same person who “sneaker’d” SCM for vulnerability.”

There is no “very close margin” when it comes to IP addresses. Either they are accurate, as were found it the case of Shooter’s aliases on this site, or they are not. Numbers are absolutes by definition.

“But we are smart, especially when it comes to computers and IP tracking.”

Then why didn’t they know that when they were perpetuating over 20 aliases on my site, that I would eventually catch on?

And lastly Shooter has said, “…since the hacker did not use a Tor or a IP cloaking device, the investigation will remain open to secure without a doubt the identity of the hacker.”

Then where is the evidence?!?!

Shooter surmised that since I had the motive, I must have been the one to hack the site. And in the face of a complete lack of evidence, thought that if they said they knew it was me and that they had did evidence (though they really didn’t, and never presented it), I would get scared and fess up before the situation got any worse for me. And then they would never need any evidence.

As much as an evil, conniving bastard as anyone may think I am, understand that I at least believe in honor amongst thieves. As someone who spends on average of 50 hours a week working on a website, and as someone who is a constant, perpetual victim of cyber-attack, the absolute last thing I would want for ANY website is for it to get hacked. In this respect, all website owners, including SCM and Moonrunnners, are allies. I want someone’s website to get hacked about as much as I want someone’s freedom of speech impinged on, which is truly what is at the heart of this matter. Shooter is attempting to silence my dissension with lies and intimidation. It will not work.

Shooter’s Complete Statement from Facebook

THE MOUNTING CASE AGAINST “TRIGGER”

For those of you that aren’t aware of Trigger, he is the “benevolent dictator” of SavingCountryMusic.com. While I value that site as an important source for the independent roots and country movements, there has been much “below the belt” interaction between Trigger and myself. As far as the personal blows are concerned, I don’t spend time worrying about such things, no press is bad press, BUT there is a much bigger problem that has arisen. Not long ago, Trigger posted a reply to “The Gunslinger”, a song from my new record ‘The Other Life’. Somehow folks have assumed that this song had to do with him (I am including his hilarious response to the song as part of this post), again more drama that really has helped us gain traction with the record, which I can do nothing but praise him for.

But for those of you that don’t know the back story with Trigger, at one point JahshieP’s “Outlaw Radio Chicago” was hosted at SCM. JahshieP interviewed me back in 2011, and we quickly became friends. (I’ve just finished producing his band Last False Hope’s upcoming album, which I am very proud of). Anyways, not long after JahshieP and I met, he began to confide in me the nature of the tyrannical sociopathic behavior that Trigger (then Triggerman) had begun to display in terms of his radio show. He asked me if I knew where he could find a home on the internet for his site that he wouldn’t have rules, criticism and restrictions put upon him. As a friend and a fan, I gladly gave him solace at BlackCountryRock.org, and we quickly built the network of radio programs that JahshieP had been envisioning for his internet radio career. This is where the anger began with Trigger.

To make this point very clear, not a year later JahshieP, Adam Sheets, Bob Dean and myself started a blog called Moonrunners, that would be our outlet for our perception of the world, and the burgeoning roots movement happening around us. We were fans and we wanted to be yet another source (not a competition) for this culture and music. We’ve had some success, including a sold out Chicago festival that JahshieP put together all himself that added to the already institutional Muddy Roots and Farmageddon Records Festivals helping expose America to this great new movement of music.

But we are smart, especially when it comes to computers and IP tracking. Not a day or so before Trigger posted his response, he had an outside source check SCM for hacking vulnerability. Hmmm… Could this be because he thought maybe his response would anger us enough to hack his site? No way! We don’t operate that way, that would be a childish maneuver and would be uncalled for really. His article wasn’t slanderous (even though many have been before). But little did we know that not 5 days later Moonrunners would be the victim of an attack that would labor our site with malware and a virus (a relatively non-functional amateur one at that) that would be downloaded upon the computer of each person that would visit Moonrunners.

Hmmm. What happened here? All of a sudden we were hacked and basically blackballed from Google for the time being. What a random attack right!? Terrible luck I guess! Just kidding! We have trackers, internet bloodhounds if you will. And those dogs tracked the attack to JahshieP’s account (which he happened to use the same password from his years at SCM for — not the smartest move — but in this case a bear-trap of monumental proportions). The hacker enlisted to do such a thing left his fingerprints all over the site. A few thin layers back we were able to match the IP address within a very close margin of that same person who “sneaker’d” SCM for vulnerability.

This is a federal offense of the biggest kind.

These IP addresses have been logged and a case has been opened to investigate the actual steps that led from the cleaning of SCM to the hacking of Moonrunners. I’d be willing to bet that when we discover the actual identity of the IP address we’ve logged, we can match it to someone who posts on SCM.

There will be two options. Trigger, you come clean, or we lean on his hacker until he comes clean for you.

I’m sure the response here will be that he doesn’t know what we’re talking about, and this post can disappear into oblivion, but just be aware this data has been stored, logged, and is being examined by folks who take this kind of thing very seriously. I look forward to finding out where this goes. It may take a year, but the man who did the dirty work for the dictator may be wise enough to perk up and let us know what happened before he gets into more trouble than he may be able to handle. I don’t believe in coincidences, and in this situation the mounting case against Trigger seems very grim. Let’s hope all parties take credit for what has gone on and maybe there can be some forgiveness had before things get very sticky, but at this point in time, it seems as if hardball must be played by all parties.

So please, if you are a fan of this, and want the drama to end, as I do and all of our friends do, realize what kind of game is being played and what the ultimate score is. I’ve begged Trigger to be friends, and I hope in the future we can be, and if he fesses up to this extremely base act, maybe we can all find a way to co-exist, but until then, we will continue to investigate this until there is nothing but proof to lay on the table.

If we are wrong, then then coincidences are real and the easter bunny is a really cheap son-of-a-bitch.

Love y’all.

Shooter

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