Samuel Tunick Faces 5-Year Felony in Pixel Wipe Case as Court Weighs CBP Search Authority
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Aug 9
Samuel Tunick Faces 5-Year Felony in Pixel Wipe Case as Court Weighs CBP Search Authority
3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Aug 9
Summary
A federal court has not yet ruled on Samuel Tunick’s motion to suppress evidence in a felony case accusing him of wiping his Google Pixel during a CBP inspection at Atlanta’s airport.
Prosecutors say Tunick gave officers a duress passcode on Jan. 24, 2025, triggering an irreversible wipe and violating 18 U.S.C. 2232(a), a rarely used statute carrying up to 5 years in prison.
Tunick’s lawyers argue the seizure was unlawful, saying CBP detained him without a warrant, denied access to counsel and used the search as a pretext tied to his anti-'Cop City' activism.
The dispute turns on whether CBP was acting under lawful border-search authority, since the statute applies only if the government had legal power to seize the phone and its data.
The case appears to be among the first publicly reported federal prosecutions centered on a phone’s duress-wipe feature, highlighting the clash between digital privacy tools and border enforcement.