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Submitted via IRC for BoyceMagooglyMonkey
Letter to judge reveals 731 pages of messages, call logs uncovered on one of two phones.
[...] The letter to Judge Kimba Wood stated that "the Government was advised that the FBI's original electronic extraction of data from telephones did not capture content related to encrypted messaging applications, such as WhatsApp and Signal... The FBI has now obtained this material."
In a letter to the presiding judge in the case against Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's long-time personal attorney, the US Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York revealed today that it had obtained additional evidence for review—including a trove of messages and call logs from WhatsApp and Signal on one of two BlackBerry phones belonging to Cohen. The messages and call logs together constitute 731 pages of potential evidence. The FBI also recovered 16 pages of documents that had been shredded, but it has not yet been able to complete the extraction of data from the second phone.
This change is likely because of the way the messages are stored by the applications, not because the FBI had to break any sort of encryption on them. WhatsApp and Signal store their messages in encrypted databases on the device, so an initial dump of the phone would have only provided a cryptographic blob. The key is required to decrypt the contents of such a database, and there are tools readily available to access the WhatsApp database on a PC.
(Score: 5, Informative) by choose another one on Sunday June 17 2018, @04:15PM (2 children)
BS. Mueller doesn't get to do that, on purpose or otherwise - the court approved "taint team" and special master decide what is or is not privileged before Mueller or his team get to see it. Only they can violate the privilege. Mueller _cannot_ violate it, because he can _only see_ what the court (via the special master) has already decided is _not_ privileged. This is long-established standard practice. This is hardly the first time a lawyer has been raided - even if Trump thinks it is.
Also, the privilege _is_ limited and does not protect any communications about the commissioning of a crime (it does protect communication about crimes already committed). This is standard legal practice in the US and has apparently been so for years, decades in fact, and the system hasn't collapsed and the sky hasn't fallen.
To quote SCOTUS from 1933 ( https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/289/1# [cornell.edu] ):
See also: https://www.lawfareblog.com/michael-cohen-attorney-client-privilege-and-crime-fraud-exception [lawfareblog.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 17 2018, @08:24PM
The 1930's called, they want their law back. Oh I mean, FAKE NEWS.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday June 17 2018, @08:25PM
The nutters like to talk about Trump Derangement Syndrome and i think it is just another example of their projecting their own issues on to others. Thanks for calling out the bullshit straw man since these fools just believe everything Fox and Friends tells them.