Rep. Peter King said Friday that he agrees with FBI Director James Comey that Apple should allow access to an iPhone owned by one of the San Bernardino shooters, even though he does understand that the privacy issues behind the demand are sensitive.
"It's in Director Comey's job to save lives and stop crimes," the New York Republican told
Fox News' "America's Newsroom" host Martha MacCallum. "You know there are privacy issues but I think they're really minimal in this particular case."
King added that the phone's user is dead and it was owned by the city of San Bernardino, which gave the FBI permission to access its data.
"What the FBI is asking Apple to do basically just disable the auto erasure function in there," King said. "They will give the phone to Apple. Then this can be done by remote pulsing, codes and this can't be replicated, or seized by anyone else to use. For this one phone only. The FBI will get information from that."
And while the Fourth Amendment protects Americans against unreasonable searches and seizures, King said if there is probable cause from a court, the searches are reasonable and the phone should be made available.
"What Apple is trying to say is, once they break encryption that could be hacked into by terrorists around the world or foreign countries," said King. "I think this is Apple throwing up really a false enemy. Yes, there are real concerns. We have to be on lookout for them but I find Apple has gone out of their way to be resistant, not working with FBI."
But tech companies like Apple want to sell their devices as being hack-proof, particularly after former National Security Agency worker Edward Snowden's leaks, said King.
"There is dark side to this world," King said. "If terrorists are able to communicate and plan and plot against us and we can't stop them because of these encryptions, it is a very, very dangerous world."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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