Sensei’s John Simek was quoted in Legaltech News in an article entitled, “The Forensics Take: Authenticating Trump Jr.’s ‘Russia Meeting’ Evidence” by Rhys Dipshan.
Excerpt: John Simek, vice president of Sensei Enterprises, added that such email headers can also include information about “what workstation and email client was used [to send the email], and if it was web-based or not.”
With this metadata information at hand, Simek said, one can “with a high degree of confidence, say that these were authentic messages that were sent form this account to that account and sent back.”
The data gleaned from email headers will likely be more than enough to meet the evidence authentication requirements mandated by the Federal Rules of Evidence (FRE) Rule 901, a standard commonly used by both federal and nonfederal courts around the country.
Among other things, the rule allows for authentication based on “distinctive characteristics” of an item including its contents and substance, such as email addresses and messages. These characteristics must be taken together with circumstantial facts, such as evidence a person was at their computer or device at the time an email was sent, or that the email client and device identified in the header matches those commonly used by the person in question.
