FBI filing an ’effort to vilify Apple’ says SVP Bruce Sewell
- mar
- 11
Apple's legal chief Bruce Sewell wasted no time an mince no words in responding to a new court filing from the U.S. government in the ongoing encryption feud between the two parties. On a conference call with media, Sewell said the brief read like an indictment. In his 30 years of practice he'd never seen a brief more intended to smear the other side with false accusations and innuendo than what the government had just filed.
Sewell was referring to poorly sourced, or unsourced, aspersions in the brief that cast Apple as being in cahoots with China. Sewell likened it to alleging that the FBI had assassinated Kennedy based on a conspiracy website.
By losing its decorum, and focusing on hyperbole rather than the merits of the case, Sewell could only conclude that the FBI was becoming desperate.
In its filing earlier today, the FBI argued that Apple's rhetoric has been "false" and "corrosive." The filing also once again argued that Apple's assistance would only affect one phone, which runs counter to Apple's own arguments.
Now we're in the strange position of having Apple fight for our security and privacy, not only instead of the federal government, but against them.
Apple and the FBI are scheduled to argue their cases in front of a judge on March 22.
