The former University of Michigan assistant football coach accused of hacking into the email, social media and cloud storage accounts of thousands of athletes across the country and downloading their intimate photos and videos asked a federal judge Tuesday to dismiss half of the case, arguing that the government is trying to “speed up punishments for routine computer trespassing.”
Matthew Weiss, who spent 12 years in the NFL and was the offensive coordinator for one of the most prestigious programs in college football, was fired from the University of Michigan in 2023. He was indicted and pleaded not guilty in March to multiple counts of unauthorized computer access and multiple counts of aggravated identity theft that together carry a maximum sentence of nine decades in prison.
Former NFL and University of Michigan assistant football coach Matt Weiss leaves federal court in Detroit on March 24, 2025.
Pablo Sancyá/AP
Weiss’s defense accused federal prosecutors in Detroit of “overreach” in calling the routine hacking excessive, so Weiss could receive a harsher sentence.
“The government’s effort to transform computer trespass into aggravated identity theft must fail,” the defense attorneys said in their brief. motion to dismiss. “Congress has created a careful framework for how to punish computer hacking, and the government’s novel theory conflicts with Congress’s design.”
“Instead, this case should proceed as Congress intended: as a proceeding under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, not the Aggravated Identity Theft statute,” the motion continued.
Prosecutors allege Weiss, 42, gained unauthorized access to student-athlete databases from more than 100 colleges and universities that were maintained by a third-party vendor and allegedly downloaded personally identifiable information and medical data of more than 150,000 athletes. According to the accusationWeiss was able to access the social media, email, and cloud storage accounts of more than 2,000 targeted athletes and subsequently downloaded personal and intimate digital photographs and videos that should never have been shared beyond their intimate partners.
Weiss is also accused of illegally accessing information on an additional 1,300 students, according to the indictment.
The allegations date back to 2015, when Weiss was an assistant coach with the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens, and continued until 2023 while he coached at Michigan, according to the indictment.
a federal class action lawsuit Subsequently filed on behalf of anonymous plaintiffs said to have been affected by Weiss’s alleged actions, it claims that University of Michigan officials, as well as then-football coach Jim Harbaugh, learned of Weiss’ 2022 hack before a playoff game and took no action to address it.
Harbaugh said in March, after Weiss was charged, that he was “completely shocked” by the allegations and did not learn about them until after Weiss coached his final game in 2022.
ABC News sent a request for comment in June to officials at the University of Michigan, Weiss, Harbaugh and the NFL’s Los Angeles Chargers, of which Harbaugh is now the head coach, and did not receive a response.
The defense criticized the government’s view of the case, which they argued is that entering login credentials to access another person’s account triggers the minimum two-year punishment required by the aggravated identity theft statute.
“Instead of entering login credentials and then viewing account information being a mostly probation offense, suddenly there is a mandatory minimum sentence of two years for each act of hacking,” the defense said, in part. “Lawyers are aware that no court decision has accepted this theory.”
Prosecutors have not yet responded to the defense’s motion.
