The US is charging an American citizen for wiping his phone at the border
The Verge • • business
Key Points:
- US citizen Sam Tunick is being prosecuted for allegedly providing a “duress password” that wiped his phone when federal agents attempted to seize it at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport in January 2025.
- Authorities detained Tunick on suspicion of involvement with child exploitation images, but his lawyers argue this was a pretext to investigate his ties to the Stop Cop City movement.
- The government is using a rarely-invoked statute that criminalizes destroying or damaging property to prevent seizure, alleging Tunick used a feature of GrapheneOS to erase his phone data via a duress password.
- Tunick’s defense claims the detention was unlawful, citing denial of legal counsel, lack of a warrant, and false pretenses for the search, while the government contends a warrant was unnecessary as Tunick had not yet been allowed entry to the US.
- Advocates emphasize the right to protect private data from unconstitutional searches, especially amid increasing scrutiny and detention of travelers under recent US administrations, noting data deletion as a key protective measure.
