Apple counsel Bruce Sewell calls DOJ filing 'cheap shot' that seeks to 'vilify'
Apple's lead attorney Bruce Sewell on Thursday delivered some harsh words regarding a DOJ court filing in response to the company's refusal to cooperate in an FBI investigation, saying the government letter "reads like an indictment."

Apple chief legal officer Bruce Sewell offered testimony in front of the House Judiciary Committee this month.
Sewell participated in a conference call with reporters just hours after federal prosecutors filed a formal response in the ongoing San Bernardino encryption case, which read like a point-by-point dismantling of Apple's claims. According to Business Insider, Sewell was not pleased.
"In 30 years of practice I don't think I've seen a legal brief that was more intended to smear the other side with false accusations and innuendo, and less intended to focus on the real merits of the case," Sewell said.
He went on to say that the DOJ brief "reads like an indictment" of Apple and its encryption policies. In today's letter, prosecutors suggested Apple built unbreakable security safeguards into iOS 8 and iOS 9 in part to defy government warrants and proper law enforcement requests for data access.
"This should be deeply offensive to everyone that reads it. An unsupported, unsubstantiated effort to vilify Apple rather than confront the issues in the case," Sewell added.
Apple's general counsel also took issue with allusions to a purported working data access relationship with the Chinese government. He called those allegations untrue and baseless.
"We add security features to protect our customers from hackers and criminals. And the FBI should be supporting us in this because it keeps everyone safe. To suggest otherwise is demeaning. It cheapens the debate and it tries to mask the real and serious issues. I can only conclude that the DoJ is so desperate at this point that it has thrown all decorum to the winds," he said.
Apple sparked a contentious debate over personal data privacy and national security last month when it refused to comply with a court order compelling its assistance in the FBI's investigation into last year's San Bernardino shootings. An iPhone 5c used by terror suspect Syed Rizwan Farook was seized as part of the operation, but agents are unable to thwart its iOS 9 passcode lock. The government sought, and won, a federal court order forcing Apple's help in unlocking the device, but the company has declined, saying that doing so would put millions of other iPhones at risk.
Sewell ended the call with a plea to what appears to be DOJ lawyers, asking the opposing legal team to refrain from escalating tensions further.
"We know there are great people in the DOJ and the FBI. We work shoulder to shoulder with them all the time. That's why this cheap shot brief surprises us so much," Sewell said. "We help when we're asked to. We're honest about what we can and cannot do. Let's at least treat one another with respect and get this case before the American people in a responsible way. We are going before court to exercise our legal rights. Everyone should beware because it seems like disagreeing with the Department of Justice means you must be evil and anti-American. Nothing could be further from the truth."

Apple chief legal officer Bruce Sewell offered testimony in front of the House Judiciary Committee this month.
Sewell participated in a conference call with reporters just hours after federal prosecutors filed a formal response in the ongoing San Bernardino encryption case, which read like a point-by-point dismantling of Apple's claims. According to Business Insider, Sewell was not pleased.
"In 30 years of practice I don't think I've seen a legal brief that was more intended to smear the other side with false accusations and innuendo, and less intended to focus on the real merits of the case," Sewell said.
He went on to say that the DOJ brief "reads like an indictment" of Apple and its encryption policies. In today's letter, prosecutors suggested Apple built unbreakable security safeguards into iOS 8 and iOS 9 in part to defy government warrants and proper law enforcement requests for data access.
"This should be deeply offensive to everyone that reads it. An unsupported, unsubstantiated effort to vilify Apple rather than confront the issues in the case," Sewell added.
Apple's general counsel also took issue with allusions to a purported working data access relationship with the Chinese government. He called those allegations untrue and baseless.
"We add security features to protect our customers from hackers and criminals. And the FBI should be supporting us in this because it keeps everyone safe. To suggest otherwise is demeaning. It cheapens the debate and it tries to mask the real and serious issues. I can only conclude that the DoJ is so desperate at this point that it has thrown all decorum to the winds," he said.
Apple sparked a contentious debate over personal data privacy and national security last month when it refused to comply with a court order compelling its assistance in the FBI's investigation into last year's San Bernardino shootings. An iPhone 5c used by terror suspect Syed Rizwan Farook was seized as part of the operation, but agents are unable to thwart its iOS 9 passcode lock. The government sought, and won, a federal court order forcing Apple's help in unlocking the device, but the company has declined, saying that doing so would put millions of other iPhones at risk.
Sewell ended the call with a plea to what appears to be DOJ lawyers, asking the opposing legal team to refrain from escalating tensions further.
"We know there are great people in the DOJ and the FBI. We work shoulder to shoulder with them all the time. That's why this cheap shot brief surprises us so much," Sewell said. "We help when we're asked to. We're honest about what we can and cannot do. Let's at least treat one another with respect and get this case before the American people in a responsible way. We are going before court to exercise our legal rights. Everyone should beware because it seems like disagreeing with the Department of Justice means you must be evil and anti-American. Nothing could be further from the truth."


Comments
BigBrothersayWHAT?
FACT 2. Apple, Inc. did nothing wrong in relation to this event - except unknowingly sell a phone to people with troubled minds.
FACT 3. Alphabet agencies are INCAPABLE of admitting when they make mistakes, thus rendering themselves UNTRUSTWORTHY.
This case is about INCOMPETENCE on the Federal Level of multiple agencies for failing to capture these Terrorists. Why can't our Senators and Congress-people questions the FBI why they failed the American people?
1. NSA, CIA, FBI: use national security as an excuse to collect all phone metadata, email metadata, email content, geopositional data. Store forever.
2. Feel free to search collected info about anyone, anytime. There is no need for a search warrang. The Constitution is outdated. Provide information to local police if necessary to incriminate.
3. If a terrorist attack takes place on the homeland, use "terrorism" as pretext to reinforce the need to expand data collection, surveillance, undermine encryption. Reinforce step 1.
The FBI should commit ritual suicide; it's that shameful.
Moreover, do these bozos realize: if we are not assured of security, why would we ever want to use our phone as a health, finance/payment, home appliance control, or automotive control device (to name just a few)? And if we can't, how many billions of dollars will US businesses like Apple leave on the table, in a set of industries in which the US is the undisputed leader? Don't they get it!?
History has proven that it is never in the public's best interest to give government and law enforcement unlimited powers, that's why we have the Bill of Rights. I for one would like the right to disagree with the government on issues without them being able to plant evidence on my phone to strong-arm me into compliance.
They would have to not just weakened their software but also their hardware to fully comply with those POS liar at the FBI and the hundreds of existing demands that are in the pipeline and tens of thousands in the future.. Yes, their lying about the implications of this 100%..
Funny how the FBI who just hand waved the briefs of dozens of companies with expertise in this areas as fear mongering didn't prove their point at all; if they say so I guess it must be true hmmmm.
Why are they doing this; for NOTHING (as per the FBI). This phone has nothing at all on it, just the future 99% of future phones will be unlocked routinely, Most of these will likely be non violent minority criminals arrested for drug crimes. Why? Because US fracking prison are full of people there for that reason. You know that good ol' war on drug thing that's been such a "success"; one that's used to put craploads of minorities in jail. So, those millions of people will get their rights trampled on and have no right to privacy.
In the end, every fucking terrorists will run their own encryption, because well, they have the motivation to do so, and less technically agile people living all over the world, especially in countries like China, Russia and even the US, will be thoroughly fucked up.
The same would apply to manufacturers of paper shredders. They could make many forms of law enforcement access ineffective. So is fire or the manufacturers of matches, gas lighters, etc. It is not illegal to own and use a paper shredder or matches. Encryption on a phone is like a paper shredder where with the right key you can "unshred" the paper.
Given that export of encryption software is no longer export-controlled, companies outside the US can and have developed their own versions. The current top algorithms AES and RSA have originally been developed outside the US. What that means is that crippling encryption on iPhones in the US would just cripple Americans. Foreign terrorists could easily load their own encryption software on the phone and thus "shred" communication from prying eyes or LEO.
This really amounts to a tradeoff between privacy for all or privacy only for those you are cunning and able to use other means of hiding their intentions.
Let the fear roll. Don't question authority. Don't question them how many ways they can hack and monitor you RIGHT NOW. No.. Just be docile and know that without getting to the iPhone the law enforcement can't function.
Doh.. terrorists will never use iMessage on iPhone. They're using specialised software they trust. The government just want to get in on every pieces of electronic equipments they can, irregardless of the truth of how useless and how damaging that will be.
1. You make it sound like unless the FBI can break phone encryption then we become drastically or even totally vulnerable to terrorism. This is falling into the panic trap that they have set up to drive public opinion in their favor. Law enforcement has a lot of other tools to fight terrorism, they have to accept that in a liberal democracy, nobody gets the draconian surveillance powers that they seek.
2. Even if they are able to force a backdoor to be built, it's not as if there are no alternative encryption systems that bad actors can deploy in their phones. So if the FBI gets what they want, they shall have broken privacy and transactional security for hundreds of millions of law-abiding people in exchange for NOTHING.
Too bad for the FBI, we're not as stupid and gullible as they hoped we would be.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/03/10/world/europe/ap-islamic-state-files.html
but I guess they are still not interested. This was never about terrorism or national security or about the San Bernardino victims or their families.
these despots are.
What's going on and what's at stake?