Die USA erheben Anklage gegen einen amerikanischen Staatsbürger, weil er sein Telefon an der Grenze gelöscht hat
https://www.theverge.com/policy/971097/us-charging-american-citizen-wiping-phone-duress-password
Die USA erheben Anklage gegen einen amerikanischen Staatsbürger, weil er sein Telefon an der Grenze gelöscht hat
https://www.theverge.com/policy/971097/us-charging-american-citizen-wiping-phone-duress-password
47 Kommentare
The government is prosecuting US citizen Sam Tunick for allegedly providing authorities with a “duress password” that wiped his phone when they tried to seize it at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport on January 24th, 2025.
Federal agents detained Tunick at the airport, allegedly questioning him about child exploitation images. However, a motion filed by Tunick’s lawyers argues this was simply “a pretext for a fishing expedition into Mr Tunick’s connections” to the Stop Cop City movement in Atlanta.
Read more: [https://www.theverge.com/policy/971097/us-charging-american-citizen-wiping-phone-duress-password](https://www.theverge.com/policy/971097/us-charging-american-citizen-wiping-phone-duress-password)
Here we go….
I wont stick since most likely they would have to prove what information he was wiping which they can’t know. To my knowledge this case won’t have legs to stand on in the long run.
If they can’t find incriminating evidence on your phone they’ll just accuse you of deleting stuff.
Thats a fun level of malicious compliance.
The password **did** let them into the phone.
Paywall
Why can’t we post a link that I don’t have to sign up to read…
Thought experiment: if he had wiped his phone 10 minutes prior to crossing the border (prior to the agents seizing and requesting access to his phone), would that still have been tampering with evidence? (If the answer is “yes”, then what about 10 hours prior? 10 days prior?)
I hope the best lawyers in the country come to bat for this guy. Easiest payout in their careers.
I guess that in the future they’ll just send the device in to forensics rather than trying to examine it themselves.
Fascist are everywhere now. FUCK not only the police but any cosplay wannabe claim of authority. The President is a rapist pedophile
This is why GrapheneOS is good. This is what a duress pin is for. He was under duress. The duress pin doesn’t actually wipe out your storage. it simply deletes the key used to decrypt everything in tbe storage device.
You can also make a backup of the phone, save it outside of the device in a cloud service, wipe the device, and restore from the file you made at a later time or date.
Had he done this method prior to the border stop and restored afterwards, this wouldn’t have happened. He’d most likely have given the actual pin, and they would look in the phone and see it was stock.
Btw, when creating the backup, the OS gives you 16 random words which you need to input later whenever you restore from said-backup. If I recall, the US nuclear launch codes do the exact same method, but I think those only use 8 words instead. Don’t quote me.
Why did they accuse him of having CSAM on his phone? Was it based on credible evidence, or was it done in order to attempt to justify this charge?
I understand that to date, courts have upheld these searches of personal devices at the border. But this needs to change. Our phones aren’t simple luggage: they can include private conversations; tax information; privileged communications; financial details; hobbies; private thoughts (such as a diary); etc. The federal government doesn’t need to have that much information about any of us.
Also: I’m vocally critical of the Trump administration. I have text messages discussing my disdain for him. I have social media where I make videos critical of his administration. If I go through the border again, it would absolutely be with a burner phone. Or Graphene, where I could similarly delete everything. It’s not because I have “something to hide;” it’s because I don’t trust the Trump administration to fairly represent my private thoughts. Could they find that information via my social media? Absolutely. But they could also find drafts, notes, private conversations I haven’t pushed out to my socials. And given that they’re currently attempting to label the entirety of the left as antifa terrorists, I presume there’s a possibility they’d do that to me.
Note: I do not condone violence in any way and I do not think making a martyr of anyone is a wise idea. So if any Trumpers get the idea of reporting me to the USSS, I want to be clear: I’m not claiming I’m a terrorist. I’m saying I don’t trust this administration not to lie about it. I am a peaceful person using my right to criticize my government.
I’m not a lawyer but on its face this seems like it should be thrown out of court. Nothing CBP did was legit, everything they did was flat-out harassment and manipulation using false pretenses. If a court finds this person guilty, it will set a precedent that greatly empowers law enforcement to encroach on our privacy.
The bigger picture problem is that the DOJ and homeland security are now seen as so corrupt that even if the person had illegal material on their phones before it was wiped, most people will suspect it’s all lies as the DOJ/HS has lost all credibility.
The result being that a person who – if the claims are true – should be put away will likely walk away.
This is a good example of why people are becoming far less inclined to travel to the US. We have been doing a regular school tour for many years but authorities rejected our last tour request for fear that students might be detained or targeted at the border for unpredictable reasons.
„Land of the free“
This is one of the reasons that we aren’t leaving the country or trying to enter it again.
This is also the reason why I’ve told people who are thinking of visiting this country, not to.
America is not safe.
It’s been a while since I travelled to the US but I always took a Chromebook with me that was already wiped. I would restore everything when I got to where I was going and wipe it again before I went home.
He didn’t wipe his phone — he gave them a number, and the border agents used that number to wipe the phone themselves.
so basically youre guilty of things they dont even know about, have no evidence of, haven’t seen, cannot prove. fuck this administration. the only thing trickling down is the dictatorship.
This is why you buy the cheapest phone you can reasonably use for international travel, and store your contacts in an email to yourself. Stay logged out unless you need to reference the contacts. Factory reset the phone every morning you travel. There’s probably more stuff, but I’m not a privacy enthusiast. Make it standard procedure and no one can accuse you of doing it to get in the way of their investigation. Travelers are often targets of theft and a clean phone keeps your identity out of their hands.
As it is technically speaking, he did not do anything other than provide them with a legitimate password that did open the phone. It just happened to have an undesirable effect. He did not do anything with the data on the phone, the individuals that put in the password did.
They act like he deleted the Epstein Files
Enjoy the eventual bag, sir
If they didn’t need a warrant because he hadn’t been granted permission to enter the US yet, how can they charge him for any US laws? Laws are confusing man
If he had „not entered the US“ yet, how can they charge him with a US law?
I feel like I’m going insane. Is this not a perfect example of “innocent until proven guilty in a court of law” being tossed out the window?
Would seem like this is a massive violation of the 4th amendment and he didn’t destroy evidence he made it so his illegaly seized phone could not be illegaly searched. Sounds like his lawyers will have a field day with this.
Trump is a traitor to the American people and needs to be removed.
This will be an interesting court case. GOV justifies taking the phone and requiring the PW without warrant because he hasn’t passed through customs yet into the U.S…. So the defense will argue what U.S. law did he violate if he wasn’t in the U.S. and covered by the constitution and amendments….. sad part is the GOV will drag this out and force defendant to spend money on attorneys, and all the other costs just to get the judge to tell CBP they can’t have it both ways.
Slam dunk first amendment case probably.
I need to get in on these so I can win some money.
>The government has countered that they were not required to produce a warrant because Tunick had not yet been granted permission to enter the US.
Citizens don’t need permission to enter. As soon as they verify your citizenship you are required entry.
Shit like this is why my company gives burner computers and phones to anyone who has to travel to or through the US. It used to only be for third world countries but now…
This happened at the Atlanta airport.
Man does what he wants with his own property. Play-fascists get mad.
Technically, it was the border agent that wiped his phone.
The 4th Reich is ramping up, all they need now is the Reichstag fire.
Even less fun for your country when you realize he was more likely targeted because Samuel Tunick is an activist linked to the movement against the controversial police training center known as „Cop City“ in Atlanta, Georgia.
Technically the agents shut the phone down after illegally trying to open it without a warrant.
What’s funny is that *he* didn’t wipe his phone, *they* did. And they did it without even thinking to ask what would happen if they entered the passcode he gave them. Idiots.
Furthermore, nothing he did prevented them from seizing his phone. Far as I know, they seized it and still have it.
Good luck with that you’re gonna lose in court like you’ve lost every other thing wanna be nah zees
I’m a lawyer and I always wipe my phone going across the border because it’s unquestionable (basically) that they have the right to search my phone despite attorney-client privilege. This is worrying as fuck.
i wonder… if i had a phone case and inside that case there was a number that could be the pin or not. and police used it without my say so and eresed everything. could the owner be still charged
If an American abroad has no rights, are they still a citizen?
If a president travels abroad, are they still a us citizen?
this is why i have a travel phone
MAGA will cheer this on even though it’s the most anti-Conservative behavior ever