The Federal Bureau of Investigation has so far been unable to access data from a Washington Post reporter’s iPhone because it was protected by Apple’s Lockdown Mode when agents seized the device from the reporter’s home, the US government said in a court filing.
FBI agents were able to access the reporter’s work laptop by telling her to place her index finger on the MacBook Pro’s fingerprint reader, however. This occurred during the January 14 search at the Virginia home of reporter Hannah Natanson.
As previously reported, the FBI executed a search warrant at Natanson’s home as part of an investigation into a Pentagon contractor accused of illegally leaking classified data. FBI agents seized an iPhone 13 owned by the Post, one MacBook Pro owned by the Post and another MacBook Pro owned by Natanson, a 1TB portable hard drive, a voice recorder, and a Garmin watch.
Government investigators want to read Natanson’s Signal messages, and were able to view at least some of them on her work laptop. The reporter has said she has a contact list of 1,100 current and former government employees in Signal, which she uses for encrypted chats.
The Justice Department described the search in a court filing that was submitted Friday in US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia and noted in a 404 Media article today. The government filing opposes a motion in which the Post and Natanson asked the court to order the return of the seized devices. A federal magistrate judge previously issued a standstill order telling the government to stop searching the devices until the court rules on whether they must be returned.
“The iPhone was found powered on and charging, and its display noted that the phone was in ‘Lockdown’ mode,” the government filing said. After the seized devices were taken to the FBI’s Washington field office, the Computer Analysis Response Team (CART) “began processing each device to preserve the information therein,” the filing said.