New
York
City
Mayor
Eric
Adams,
who
was
indicted
last
week
on
charges
including
fraud,
bribery,
and
soliciting
donations
from
foreign
nationals,
told
federal
investigators
he
forgot
his
phone
password
before
handing
it
over,
according
to
charging
documents.
That
was
almost
a
year
ago,
and
investigators
still
can’t
get
into
the
phone,
prosecutors
said
Wednesday.
During
a
federal
court
hearing,
prosecutor
Hagan
Scotten
said
the
FBI’s
inability
to
get
into
Adams’
phone
is
a
“significant
wild
card,”
according
to
a
report
from
the
New
York
Post.
The
FBI
issued
a
search
warrant
for
Adams’
devices
in
November
2023.
Adams
initially
handed
over
two
phones
but
didn’t
have
his
personal
device
on
him.
The
indictment
does
not
mention
what
type
of
device
Adams
uses.
When
Adams
turned
in
his
personal
cellphone
the
following
day,
charging
documents
say,
he
said
he
had
changed
the
password
a
day
prior
—
after
learning
about
the
investigation
—
and
couldn’t
remember
it.
Adams
told
investigators
he
changed
the
password “to
prevent
members
of
his
staff
from
inadvertently
or
intentionally
deleting
the
contents
of
his
phone,”
the
indictment
alleges.
Even
if
Adams’
excuse
isn’t
true
(or
if
he
happens
to
remember
his
password
later
on),
he
may
not
have
to
give
that
information
to
the
police.
Several
courts
have
ruled
that,
even
in
instances
where
police
have
a
warrant
to
search
someone’s
phone,
the
Fifth
Amendment
right
against
self-incrimination
means
investigators
can’t
compel
a
suspect
to
tell
them
their
phone
password.
Phone
passcodes
are
often
considered
a
form
of
“testimonial”
evidence
because
they
require
a
person
to
reveal
their
thoughts.
But
if
Face
or
Touch
ID
had
been
enabled
on
Adams’
device,
the
FBI
potentially
could
have
unlocked
his
phone
with
biometrics
—
which
aren’t
typically
considered
a
form
of
testimonial
evidence.
The
FBI
may
be
able
to
get
into
Adams’
phone
without
his
passcode
or
thumbprint
—
they
just
need
the
right
tools.
After
investigators
at
the
FBI’s
Pittsburgh
field
office
failed
to
break
into
the
Trump
rally
shooter’s
phone,
they
sent
the
device
over
to
the
FBI
lab
in
Quantico,
Virginia,
where
agents
cracked
it
in
less
than
an
hour.
The
investigators
at
Quantico
reportedly
used
an
unreleased
tool
from
the
Israeli
mobile
forensics
company
Cellebrite
to
unlock
the
shooter’s
phone.
Still,
experts
told
the
Post
that
breaking
into
Adams’
phone
could
be
“monumentally
difficult”
for
the
FBI.
(Originally posted by Gaby Del Valle)
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