Now that I have pleaded guilty it is a relief to be able to say that I did work with Anonymous to hack Stratfor, among other websites. Those others included military and police equipment suppliers, private intelligence and information security firms, and law enforcement agencies. I did this because I believe people have a right to know what governments and corporations are doing behind closed doors. I did what I believe is right.

Hammond is scheduled to be sentenced in September. Since pleading guilty doesn't guarantee one will receive the "acceptance of responsibility" credit under the sentencing guidelines, I'm not sure that was the best way to phrase his sentiment. His lack of remorse is unlikely to sit well with the sentencing judge. I think he could have made the same point by saying "I did what I believed was right at the time."

From the plea agreement, available here.

Nothing in this Agreement limits the right of the Government to seek denial of the adjustment for acceptance of responsibility, see U.S.S.G. §3E1.1, regardless of any stipulation set forth above, if the defendant fails clearly to demonstrate acceptance of responsibility, to the satisfaction of the Government, through his allocution and subsequent conduct prior to the imposition of sentence.

That aside, this is a tough plea agreement for Hammond. His guidelines will probably exceed the 10 year maximum penalty. He has a substantial criminal history according to the plea agreement -- placing him in Criminal History Category IV. He's agreed that the conduct in the dismissed charges can be considered as "relevant conduct" for the purpose of computing his guideline range. That makes his agreed upon sentencing guideline range 151 to 188 months, assuming he gets the acceptance of responsibility credit. (Without it, the range would be even higher.)

Since the statutory maximum trumps the guidelines, the most he can get is 10 years. The judge may view him as already having received a substantial benefit from the charge bargaining that limits his maximum to 10 years. She may also consider the what his sentence might have been had he gone to trial and lost, and think 10 years is lenient, by comparison.

The plea agreement prevents Hammond from appealing his sentence by direct appeal or habeas or seeking to withdraw his plea. It prevents him from seeking a departure under the guidelines (although he can ask for a non-guideline sentence, known as a variance), and it prevents him from appealing any restitution order unless he is ordered to pay more than $2.5 million.

His lawyer says she will ask for a sentence of time served, based on the sentences in Great Britain handed down to his co-defendants, who were also charged there. Ryan Ackroyd, Jake Davis and Ryan Cleary were sentenced in May. (Ackroyd and Davis are named in Hammond's indictment, while Cleary was charged in a California case.) From the London police website:

• Ryan Cleary - 32 months
• Jake Davis - 24 months
• Ryan Ackroyd - 30 months
• Mustafa Al-Bassam - 20 months, suspended for 2 years. 200 hours of unpaid work.

Hammond's lawyer says she will argue that Hammond is similarly situated to Ackroyd, who did not cooperate with the Government.

As to the other two charged in the U.S., Jake Davis, age 20, agreed to plead immediately (and cooperated), and has since renounced his activities.

Jake Davis, who went by the online alias Topiary, says he now regrets "95% of the things I've ever typed on the internet".

"It was my world, but it was a very limited world. You can see and hear it, but you can't touch the internet. It's a world devoid of empathy - and that shows on Twitter, and the mob mentality against politicians and public figures. There is no empathy...."So it was my world, and it was a very cynical world and I became a very cynical person."

Ryan Cleary also cooperated when arrested. He also suffers from Asberger's.

There is a wide disparity in sentencing in these hacking cases, but a lot of it seems to turn, like in most cases, on cooperation. Cody Kretzinger, who pleaded to two counts involving a Sony hack (not the playstation one), got 12 months, but it's clear from the docket and sealed sente