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Colbert discusses battle between Apple and FBI with U.S. Attorney General

Published Mar 11th, 2016 1:59PM EST
Colbert Loretta Lynch
Image: The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

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On Thursday night, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch appeared as a guest on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. The two discussed a myriad of topics regarding law enforcement and national security, but what caught our attention was when Colbert decided to broach the subject Apple’s battle with the FBI.

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“Let’s talk about iPhones for a second,” Colbert began. He laid out the situation in a relatively digestible manner and asked Lynch if she disagreed with Apple CEO Tim Cook’s assessment of the situation.

“Well, you know we’ve disagreed publicly in court, and I’ve had a number of great conversations with Tim Cook on issues of privacy,” Lynch said. “What I’ll say about this though is I understand why this is important to everybody, because privacy is an important issue for everyone. It’s important to me as the attorney general, it’s important to me as a citizen.”

Colbert then went on to claim that the Department of Justice wants Apple to build a backdoor to allow their agents to access the data on the phone of one of the San Bernardino terror suspects.

Of course, as the DOJ has repeatedly explained, and as Lynch was quick to note on The Late Show, the DOJ does not want a backdoor. Rather, the department simply wants Apple to give them a chance to unlock the phone without erasing the data, thus complying with the wishes of the phone’s true owner: the San Bernardino County Health Department.

You can watch the entire segment below, but the Apple discussion begins at around the 2:55 mark:

Jacob Siegal
Jacob Siegal Associate Editor

Jacob Siegal is Associate Editor at BGR, having joined the news team in 2013. He has over a decade of professional writing and editing experience, and helps to lead our technology and entertainment product launch and movie release coverage.