BY NATE RAYMOND
Apple Inc said the
U.S. Justice Department's new attempts to unlock an iPhone used by one of the
San Bernardino shooters without the tech giant's help could eliminate the
government's need for its assistance in a similar dispute in New York.
The
company's position was laid out in a letter filed on Thursday in federal court
in Brooklyn, New York, seeking to delay briefing in the Justice Department's
appeal of a ruling that protects Apple (AAPL.O)
from unlocking an iPhone in a drug case.
The
letter came after U.S. prosecutors on Monday disclosed that "an outside
party" had presented a possible way to open the phone in the San
Bernardino investigation, which they said could eliminate the need for an order
requiring Apple's help.
In
its letter, Apple said if the method being evaluated in the San Bernardino case
can also be used in the Brooklyn drug case, "it would eliminate the need
for Apple's assistance."
Apple said that could affect the Justice Department's
appeal of a Feb. 29 ruling by U.S. Magistrate Judge James Orenstein that he did
not have authority to order Apple to disable the security of an iPhone seized
during the drug investigation.
"On the other hand, if the DOJ claims
that the method will not work on the iPhone here, Apple will seek to test that
claim, as well as any claims by the government that other methods cannot be
used," Apple said in the letter.
Apple as a result asked U.S. District Judge
Margo Brodie, who is presiding over the appeal, to delay the briefing schedule
in the case by at least 10 days after the Justice Department files a status
report on April 5 in the San Bernardino case.
A spokeswoman for the Justice Department
did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday. Apple in its
letter said the Justice Department did not oppose the delay.
The phone in the Brooklyn case belonged to
Jun Feng, who has since pleaded guilty to participation in a methamphetamine
distribution conspiracy. The Justice Department sought to unlock Feng's phone
to find other conspirators.
Unlike the phone used by Rizwan Farook in
San Bernardino, Feng's phone had an older operating system, iOS 7, which is not
protected under the same encryption technology.
(Reporting
by Nate Raymond in New York; Editing by Andrea Ricci)
No comments:
Post a Comment