Overview
- Prosecutors say Samuel Tunick provided a passcode during a Customs and Border Protection secondary inspection that triggered his GrapheneOS phone to erase itself, an incident that occurred on January 24, 2025.
- The Department of Justice indicted Tunick under 18 U.S.C. § 2232, a rarely used statute that criminalizes knowingly destroying property to prevent lawful seizure; he has pleaded not guilty and remains free on bail.
- Tunick’s lawyers have filed a motion to suppress, arguing he was unlawfully detained, denied counsel, and subjected to a warrantless device search, and a judge is expected to rule on that motion no earlier than late October.
- GrapheneOS developers and security experts say the duress PIN deletes key derivation material so data cannot be recovered, and they warn that treating this built-in safety feature as a crime could chill use by activists and journalists.
- Legal observers say the case is likely the first U.S. prosecution tied to a duress-password wipe and that the outcome could change how the border search exception and device-security tools are balanced in future investigations.