One of the unfortunate quirks of the American system is that you can't lie to the government, but the government can lie to you.
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government → lie → you
Samuel Tunick found himself on the receiving end of this setup last year at Atlanta International Airport.
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Tunick → find → Airport
When agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) asked for his phone password, he allegedly gave them a self-destruct code that wiped his data.
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that → ask → data
Tunick now faces five years in prison for destroying evidence.
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Tunick → face → evidence
It turns out that the feds were lying to Tunick the entire time.
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feds → turn → Tunick
A new court filing, first reported by 404 Media, shows that the DHS had sent out an order to seize Tunick's phone over his involvement in environmentalist protests in Atlanta.
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DHS → report → Atlanta
When he landed at the airport, however, agents told Tunick that they were looking for "kiddie porn" and he would be allowed to leave with his phone if he cooperated.
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he → land → phone
They also repeatedly denied him access to his lawyer when he asked.
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he → deny → lawyer
"There can be no real debate that if law enforcement had acted similarly elsewhere in Atlanta, their actions would be unconstitutional.
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actions → act → Atlanta
But the government says it was entitled to act this way because Mr. Tunick was returning from an international vacation" in the Dominican Republic, his lawyers wrote in the filing, which includes internal DHS communications and excerpts from his interrogation video.
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which → say → video
U.S. law recognizes a "border exception" to Fourth Amendment privacy rights, allowing federal agents to search incoming travelers for contraband.
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agents → recognize → contraband
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) claims that this exemption also allows them to hold travelers for questioning and search their electronic data.
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them → claim → data
Tunick's case reveals just how widely the agency stretches this loophole.
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agency → reveal → loophole
A few hours before Tunick landed, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agent Travis Mcghie emailed the CBP station in Atlanta with his photo and information, stating that he is under investigation for "suspected terrorist activities."
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he → land → activities
(Tunick is involved in Save the Atlanta Forest, also known as Stop Cop City, a protest movement against a local police training center.)
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Tunick → involve → center
The email asked CBP to "conduct a 100% baggage exam, retain all electronics and collect passcodes," stating that the HSI will be at the airport to conduct an interrogation.
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HSI → ask → interrogation
Pulled into the secondary screening room, Tunick "almost immediately" told CBP officers that "I don't really want to speak without a lawyer any more," according to the filing, which cites the interrogation tape.
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which → pull → tape
He would ask for a lawyer multiple times.
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He → ask → lawyer
The agents asked Tunick if he had "kiddie porn" on his phone and stated that "because you're refusing to talk, we have the authority to go through your phone to see what we're looking for."
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we → ask → what
One of them, Latoya Castro, told Tunick that "either you can give us your password so that we can go through it no problem, or you can refuse to do that, unfortunately, we will have to seize your phone."
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we → tell → phone
The HSI's email had asked CBP to take Tunick's phone, whether or not he cooperated.
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he → ask → phone
The lie about child porn may not only have been meant to intimidate Tunick.
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lie → mean → Tunick
While there are contradictory lower court rulings about the border search exemption, some courts have ruled that the CBP can only search electronics for "digital contraband," or files that are themselves illegal.
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that → be → contraband
Tunick was using GrapheneOS, a secure phone system that allows users to set both a real password and a "duress password" that wipes out all data when entered.
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that → use → data
The interrogation tape shows his phone appearing to reset after he gave the officers a passcode.
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he → show → passcode
HSI agent Nathan Burnham and FBI agent Andrea Coble then entered the room.
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Burnham → enter → room
Once these gentlemen are done with you, pursuant to your entry into the country, you're free to leave," Burnham said, referring to the CBP officers.
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Burnham → do → officers
Tunick's lawyers argue that the judge should throw out the phone password Tunick provided and everything that resulted from entering it as an "involuntary" response made under "unlawful interrogation," because the CBP agents did not read Tunick his Fifth Amendment rights and ignored his multiple requests to consult with his lawyer before answering their questions.
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agents → argue → questions
The CBP claims that secondary screening at the border doesn't count as a criminal investigation, so detainees don't have the same rights as criminal suspects.
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detainees → claim → suspects
"Since the international arrivals inspection is an administrative function, CBP policy and federal regs do not permit the presence of lawyers during secondary examinations," a spokesman told Reason earlier this year.
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spokesman → permit → Reason
But Tunick's lawyers insist that his experience was "far outside" a normal border crossing: He was accused of a serious crime to his face, faced an investigation for a different serious crime he didn't know about, and clearly could not leave the situation until he gave information to government agents.
"I hope people understand that the charges against me are meant to intimidate people against protecting their data and their privacy, and the government hopes to set a precedent that no one has the right to privacy," Tunick told 404 Media.
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Tunick → insist → privacy
Defend the Atlanta Forest, the movement that Tunick is involved with, has been a major nuisance for authorities in Georgia.
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Tunick → defend → Georgia
Protesters attacked and burned construction equipment throughout 2022, and police shot a protester in 2023 under unclear circumstances, claiming that they were fired at during a raid.
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they → attack → raid
The Trump administration has brought down the federal government against the movement.
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administration → bring → movement
In June 2026, the Department of Justice brought federal charges against two alleged arsonists, citing National Security Presidential Memo 7, which directs the feds to go after left-wing domestic terrorism.
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which → bring → terrorism
But beyond the email line about "suspected terrorist activities," there is no indication of what specific crimes the feds suspected Tunick of, or why they suspected him.
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they → be → him
And the whole setup of the interrogation was designed to hide those answers.
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setup → design → answers
In fact, instead of charging Tunick under typical obstruction or evidence-destruction laws, federal prosecutors chose a rarely-used statute that doesn't require them to disclose what the underlying investigation was about.
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investigation → charge → what
"Many times the government wants to highlight what it was trying to investigate because that ups the stakes on what the defendant was doing," former prosecutor Daniel Richman told The New York Times.
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Richman → want → Times
"This is a case where I think they're trying to avoid exactly that by focusing only on the destruction, and not what the investigation was about."
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investigation → think → what
The Aporia
