A U.S. citizen is facing an obstruction charge for allegedly giving customs agents a code that erased his phone, according to reports.
Samuel Tunick of Atlanta was questioned by federal authorities at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport after returning to the U.S. from the Dominican Republic in January 2025, during which they seized his phone, according to a motion filed by Tunick’s lawyer in March.
The government was investigating Tunick because of his association with an environmental movement called Defend the Atlanta Forest that opposed the building of an Atlanta police and fire training center dubbed Cop City that was opened last year, Tunick’s lawyer Melissa McGrane wrote in the filing first obtained by The Guardian.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents insisted that Tunick give them the passcode to his phone, which he eventually did, according to McGrane. When the federal agents entered the passcode, “the screen went blank, flashed several times and the phone appeared to restart,” McGrane quoted the government as saying.
Tunick had used GrapheneOS, an operating system for Android devices that can wipe a phone.
McGrane wrote that the CBP agents argued that they could question Tunick and search his phone to “determine whether he had child porn,” which his lawyer called a “pretext for a fishing expedition into Mr. Tunick’s connections with the Defend the Atlanta Forest movement.”
In a call to protest against the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, Defend the Atlanta Forest wrote on its website, “We refuse to let our forest be bulldozed in favor of the police.” McGrane said the group was opposing the destruction of the South River Forest to construct the 85-acre training facility.
McGrane asked the court in her motion to suppress all unconstitutionally obtained statements, claiming authorities didn’t read him his Miranda Rights and denied multiple requests for him to speak to a lawyer.
She also argued that the evidence obtained from Tunick’s phone — or lack thereof — should be suppressed as “fruits of his unlawful interrogation.”
Tunick was indicted in November for obstruction, according to The New York Times. The Justice Department is relying on a federal statute that makes it a felony to destroy evidence to keep the government from seizing it.
The Independent has reached out to the Justice Department and Tunick’s lawyer for comment.
A hearing on the motion was held on July 20, and the judge won’t decide on the motion until at least the end of October, according to The Guardian.
