The US is charging an American citizen for wiping his phone at the border

The authorities is prosecuting US national Sam Tunick for allegedly providing authorities pinch a “duress password” that wiped his telephone erstwhile they tried to prehend it astatine Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airdrome connected January 24th, 2025. Federal agents detained Tunick astatine the airport, allegedly questioning him astir kid exploitation images. However, a mobility revenge by Tunick’s lawyers argues this was simply “a pretext for a sportfishing expedition into Mr Tunick’s connections” to the Stop Cop City activity successful Atlanta.

The authorities is turning to a little-known and rarely-used statute that makes it forbidden to destruct aliases harm spot to extremity authorities from seizing it. They allege that Tunick utilized a characteristic of the privacy-focused GrapheneOS to swipe his telephone by giving authorities a duress password, alternatively of the existent passcode to unlock the phone. The defense has based on that the detention and seizure were unlawful, and truthful each grounds should beryllium tossed.

According to Tunick’s attorneys, agents refused him entree to a lawyer, did not supply a warrant, aliases pass him of his ineligible rights. They besides allege that entree to his telephone was sought nether mendacious pretenses. The authorities has countered that they were not required to nutrient a warrant because Tunick had not yet been granted support to participate the US.

Marlon Kautz, a personnel of the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, told the Guardian earlier this week that, “we each person a correct to unafraid our backstage information against unconstitutional searches. And we should — particularly successful a clip of rising authoritarianism.” Under the Trump administration, entering the US has go a overmuch much fraught process, moreover for citizens who tin look hours-long detention and scrutiny of societal media accounts. Most work together the only measurement to protect your data is to delete it.