FBI director reflects on Apple dispute

WASHINGTON — FBI Director James Comey said the collision of privacy and national security interests revealed in the agency's legal battle with Apple Inc., posed "the hardest problem I've encountered in my entire government career."

Comey said the serious policy issues raised in the Apple litigation and the bounds of encryption cannot be resolved in the courts.

Late last month, the FBI withdrew its case against the tech giant demanding it assist in unlocking the encrypted iPhone of Syed Farook — one of the shooters in the December mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif. — after an outside party assisted the government in hacking the device.

"I'm glad the litigation is gone," Comey told students at Catholic University's Columbus School of Law, adding that the "emotion around that issue was not productive."

"Apple is not a demon; I hope people don't perceive the FBI as a demon."

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The government's withdraw from San Bernardino case, the director said, has allowed both sides to "take the temperature down'' while allowing a broader public debate to continue.

The government litigation involving Apple is not over.

Last week, the Justice Department told a New York federal judge that it is pressing forward in a separate effort to force Apple’s assistance in unlocking an iPhone linked to a drug conspiracy case in New York City.

In a one-page letter filed in a New York federal court, DOJ lawyers said the government “continues to require Apple’s assistance in accessing the data” on the iPhone of Jun Feng, a Queens, N.Y., suspect who pleaded guilty in a methamphetamine conspiracy case.