NEWS-04
Hill today.>
requiring that Apple write special software to help the FBI unlock an
iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino attackers.>
(00:12:02): Turning now to some of the day`s other news. The battle between Apple and the FBI reached all the way to Capitol Hill today. Apple is fighting the FBI`s demand to help unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino attackers. As our Pete Williams explains both are asking Congress to play referee and find an answer.
(Begin VT)
MAN (00:12:21): And if you would please rise I`ll begin by swearing you in.
PETE WILLIAMS (00:12:24): The FBI director faced a skeptical House Judiciary Committee over requiring that Apple write special software to help the FBI unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino attackers.
JAMES COMEY (00:12:36): Essentially, we`re asking Apple, take the vicious guard dog away, let us try and pick the lock.
PETE WILLIAMS (00:12:40): Comey said the FBI asked every part of the U.S. government to crack the phone and concluded only Apple held the key.
REPRESENTATIVE JASON CHAFFETZ (R-Utah) (00:12:47): When has it been the function of government to compel or force a private citizen or a company to act as an agent of the government to do what the government couldn`t do?
PETE WILLIAMS (00:12:57): Apple`s top lawyer warned that if the FBI gets what it wants the software to disable an iPhone security could get into the wrong hands.
BRUCE SEWELL (Apple General Counsel) (00:13:05): We think that protecting the security and the privacy of hundreds of millions of iPhone users is the right thing to do. That`s the reason that we`re doing this.
PETE WILLIAMS (00:13:15): But some committee members worried about phones keeping evidence out of the reach of law enforcement.
REPRESENTATIVE TREY GOWDY (R-South Carolina) (00:13:21): You can go into people`s bodies and remove bullets but you can`t go into a dead person`s iPhone and remove data? I just find it baffling.
PETE WILLIAMS (00:13:29): A federal judge in Brooklyn has now ruled for Apple in the battle over access to a drug dealer`s locked iPhone, saying the government cannot force Apple to bypass the security measure it markets to its customers. Something the judge said would be plainly offensive to the company.
(00:13:44): For now, Apple is on a roll, a win in court, its stock price up. Next, the San Bernardino court hearing in three weeks.
(00:13:51): Pete Williams, NBC News, Washington.
(End VT)
LESTER HOLT (00:13:53): There is a lot more ahead tonight. Back on the stand, more emotional testimony from Erin Andrews as the trauma she still feels years after a stalker secretly taped her but the defense firing back suggesting the incident actually helped her career.
(00:14:07): Also police say he led them on a chase in a Hummer holding children hostage but he slipped away. Now, the manhunt is on.
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