The Department of Justice’s internal watchdog, the Office of the Inspector General (OIG), has concluded that the FBI may have overstepped when it failed to exhaust internal options before pressing ahead in a high-profile 2016 legal clash with Apple.
The OIG issued a 17-page report on Tuesday, which describes the FBI’s actions two years ago during the so-called “FBI v. Apple” showdown. That case centered around the FBI’s attempt to unlock the iPhone 5C used by Syed Rizwan Farook, the man behind a terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California, in December 2015.
