1. United States
2. Calif.
3. Letter

The DOJ must drop its prosecution of Sam Tunick immediately. Tunick, an Atlanta resident, is being federally prosecuted because his phone wiped itself when agents demanded he unlock it at Hartsfield-Jackson airport — a standard feature of GrapheneOS, a legal, open-source operating system used by journalists, lawyers, and privacy-conscious people worldwide. Criminalizing a privacy tool is an attack on every American's Fourth Amendment rights. What happened to Tunick should alarm you. Agents placed him on a terrorism watchlist because of his association with anti-Cop City protests. They denied his four requests for an attorney, produced no warrant, and never read him his rights. The Electronic Frontier Foundation says they have never seen a comparable case, and experts warn this prosecution sets a precedent that would effectively make privacy-focused technology illegal. In Catalonia, police are already profiling people simply for owning a Google Pixel phone. That cannot become the American model. Peaceful protest is not terrorism. Using an encrypted phone is not a crime. This case is a transparent attempt to punish political dissent through federal power, and it follows a pattern of failed state-level prosecutions of Cop City opponents. Speak out against this prosecution and push back on the DOJ's use of terrorism watchlists to target activists exercising their constitutional rights.