Apple's attorney calls justice department a "smear campaign"

[coriolis888]

Last year, the Justice Department (Homeland Security) launched an unprecedented case against rentboy. So far, all of the charges filed against rentboy's employees have been dismissed, except for the charges against the owner.

 

Now, it seems the Justice Department has launched another strange campaign. This time the campaign is against Apple.

 

Apple's General Counsel called the behavior of the Justice Department a "smear campaign" among other things.

 

Given the rentboy fiasco plus the Apple fiasco, one has to wonder what motivates the so-called Justice Department.

 

Take a look at this article:

 

http://www.cnet.com/news/apple-criticizes-dojs-filing-as-cheap-shot/?ftag=CAD090e536&bhid=26642145642432734087558850151568

 

Bruce Sewell, Apple's general counsel, says the FBI's response is a smear campaign made out of desperation.

 

Who knows, maybe now the escort sites will be left alone.

[+ azdr0710]

important story, but probably belongs in the Lounge subforum.........followed rapidly by it being moved to Politics

[coriolis888]

important story, but probably belongs in the Lounge subforum.........followed rapidly by it being moved to Politics

\

 

You are correct. I entered it here because the rentboy bust was posted here so much. I wanted to show how our "Justice Department" has, once again, overstepped it's intended purpose, like they did with rentboy.

 

If it gets moved, I understand.

[+ DickyF]

Homeland Security did investigate RB. HS is not part of Justice. I don't know if we will ever find out why they did this. Was it connected to immigration? I suspect there is more to the story.

As far as Farook's iPhone - it's hardly a strange case. The FBI got a warrant to retrieve the phone and now has the phone of a dead mass murderer. They got a court order to have it opened. What's so strange about that? BTW Apple claims they can't do that without a back door to all phones which a lot of cyber experts say is BS. The FBI will not have the ability to open anyone else's phone.

[coriolis888]

Homeland Security did investigate RB. HS is not part of Justice.

 

 

Sorry, I must disagree.

 

Homeland Security is the "umbrella" agency that oversees the Justice Department.

 

See this:

 

"With more than 240,000 employees,[1] DHS is the third largest Cabinet department, after the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.[6]Homeland security policy is coordinated at the White House by the Homeland Security Council.

 

Other agencies with significant homeland security responsibilities include the Departments of Health and Human Services, Justice, and Energy."

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Homeland_Security

[+ quoththeraven]

Sorry, I must disagree.

 

Homeland Security is the "umbrella" agency that oversees the Justice Department.

 

See this:

 

"With more than 240,000 employees,[1] DHS is the third largest Cabinet department, after the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs.[6]Homeland security policy is coordinated at the White House by the Homeland Security Council.

 

Other agencies with significant homeland security responsibilities include the Departments of Health and Human Services, Justice, and Energy."

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Homeland_Security

 

Homeland Security is an umbrella agency, but it does not oversee the Department of Justice, which is one of the original cabinet departments. If anything, it's the other way around, as only the Justice Department represents the United States in Title I courts. I should know, as I had to be appointed a Special Assistant United States Attorney to represent the IRS in bankruptcy court, since the local US Attorney's office didn't want to handle the cases itself. There was, however, no problem with my being able to represent the IRS in Tax Court.

[coriolis888]

Homeland Security is an umbrella agency, but it does not oversee the Department of Justice, which is one of the original cabinet departments. If anything, it's the other way around, as only the Justice Department represents the United States in Title I courts. I should know, as I had to be appointed a Special Assistant United States Attorney to represent the IRS in bankruptcy court, since the local US Attorney's office didn't want to handle the cases itself. There was, however, no problem with my being able to represent the IRS in Tax Court.

 

 

Interesting. Thank you for sharing that information.

 

However, how do we get the following misleading link corrected that says:

 

"Official website of the Department of Homeland Security"

 

then under that it says:

 

"Department of Justice"

 

Here is a link to the above statements:

 

https://www.dhs.gov/keywords/department-justice

[rvwnsd]

A link to DOJ on the DHS website does not constitute DHS overseeing the DOJ. Here's an explanation of the departments that report to DHS:

 

https://www.dhs.gov/who-joined-dhs

 

And here is a link to the listing of cabinet positions that report up to the President:

 

https://www.whitehouse.gov/administration/cabinet

 

You will notice that the Attorney General, who is the Cabinet secretary in charge of DOJ, reports to the President, as does the Secretary of Homeland Security. That means the DOJ does not report to DHS.

 

As others have pointed out, Apple could help the US government if they wanted to. They have chosen not to.

 

Here's a question: If a mass murderer killed Tim Cook and law enforcement wanted Apple to write code so they could access the murderer's phone do you think Apple would refuse? My guess is they would volunteer to do so.