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US prosecution of Samuel Tunick over border phone wipe

Updated 12 times since CLSTR started tracking revisions of this situation.

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2026-08-09 23:23 UTC → 2026-08-23 07:30 UTC · added ~~removed~~

US prosecution of Samuel Tunick over border ~~duress-password indictment~~ phone wipe

In January 2025, activist Samuel Tunick was intercepted by U.S. Customs and Border Protection at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport while returning from the Dominican Republic. During a secondary inspection, Tunick provided a duress password on his Google Pixel phone running GrapheneOS, which triggered an automatic wipe of all device data. Federal prosecutors subsequently indicted Tunick for destroying property to prevent seizure and obstruction of justice, charges that could carry up to five years in prison. Tunick has pleaded not guilty, with his legal team arguing that the search violated Fourth Amendment rights because agents lacked a warrant and denied him access to counsel. While agents initially cited suspicions of child-exploitation material, Customs and Border Protection later acknowledged there was no basis for such suspicion. The case has drawn attention from privacy advocates and the GrapheneOS Foundation, which maintains that the duress-password feature is a legal security tool. Legal experts suggest the prosecution may serve as a significant test regarding the scope of digital privacy protections and the limits of warrantless searches at U.S. borders.

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