The feds are charging Samuel Tunick for destroying his phone at the border. Court documents show that they refused him a lawyer and lied about why he was searched.
One of the unfortunate quirks of the American system is that you can’t lie to the government, but the government can lie to you. Samuel Tunick found himself on the receiving end of this setup last year at Atlanta International Airport. When agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) asked for his phone password, he allegedly gave them a self-destruct code that wiped his data. Tunick now faces five years in prison for destroying evidence.
It turns out that the feds were lying to Tunick the entire time. A new court filing, first reported by 404 Media, shows that the DHS had sent out an order to seize Tunick’s phone over his involvement in environmentalist protests in Atlanta. When he landed at the airport, however, agents told Tunick that they were looking for “kiddie porn” and he would be allowed to leave with his phone if he cooperated. They also repeatedly denied him access to his lawyer when he asked.
“There can be no real debate that if law enforcement had acted similarly elsewhere in Atlanta, their actions would be unconstitutional. But the government says it was entitled to act this way because Mr. Tunick was returning from an international vacation” in the Dominican Republic…
The feds are charging Samuel Tunick for destroying his phone at the border. Court documents show that they refused him a lawyer and lied about why he was searched.
Technically, he didn’t destroy his own phone, the gov’t did when they entered the duress code which he gave them. This won’t have them thinking twice about entering codes, but should.
Tactics such as this is also something PFRs who travel overseas should be aware of upon returning home, though PFRs are already the exception to the secondary and search rule.