emptywheel

The Apple/FBI fight over the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone ended almost a year and eight months ago. The issue has been mostly dormant since then in the U.S. Now that the FBI is having trouble accessing the Texas shooter's iPhone, a new court battle could be close at hand.

President Trump, of course, urged his fans to boycott Apple during the campaign because of the San Bernardino case. And he's generally gone out of his way to appeal to law enforcement, which desperately wants a solution here.

Back to Rosenstein. There's a bit of irony in him becoming the government's new encryption champion. The last person in that role was former FBI Director James Comey. You may remember Rosenstein wrote a little memo about Comey.

"Encryption is one of the issues I agree completely with Jim Comey on," Rosenstein told me. "I think he was right about the issue."

Expect to hear more about encryption from Rosenstein. He told me that his engagement is “a conscious decision on my part … because I think it’s one of the most important law enforcement challenges we face.”

There's a lot more in my Rosenstein story, including a nugget about interagency deliberations on encryption, analysis of his comments from civil liberties and law enforcement types, and his response to a few key criticisms. http://politico.pro/2yjUA93 

Great interview!! Curious I’d you asked the outcome in the 2013/14 cases? Plea deals or successful prosecution, so crypto was just a speed bump, or it stopped the investigations? The thing I want to know when the FBI says it has 7k devices is how many stopped the investigation?