Public Records Show FBI Secretly Extracted Data From ICE Protesters' Phones

[Igel]

2. That's what the claim sets out to get us to believe.

But the text of the article undermines the main goal--if that's really the goal.

The FBI needed search warrants to extract data from the devices in June, according to Laura Moraff, staff attorney at the ACLU’s Speech, Privacy, and Technology Project. But it’s difficult to determine whether those warrants were obtained and what they said. The government is not required to notify people if their devices have been searched in an investigation—that information is normally only revealed through the discovery process in court. But 12 of the 13 protesters whose phones were extracted were never indicted.

“Warrant procedures are ex parte—it’s the government going in and saying, ‘We need to do this,”’ said Moraff. “The defendant doesn’t have an opportunity to challenge that until they’re made aware of it, which is usually in a criminal case.”

If they got warrants and the claims made as the basis for those warrants are reasonable, than what they did is 100% lawful.

If those two were charged and it goes to trial and the basis for the warrants was fraudulent or if there were no warrants, then that evidence will be tossed and quite likely the charges dismissed with prejudice.