Samuel Tunick faces felony charges from the US Department of Justice after providing a duress code that wiped his phone's data
An activist from Atlanta faces a number of federal charges after a 2025 airport interrogation in which he gave border agents a duress passcode which wiped the data from his phone.
In January 2025, an Atlanta resident named Samuel Tunick was on a nature trip with his friends when a homeland security agent started circulating emails about investigating him for “suspected terrorism activities.” Tunick had no idea that he had already been on a watch list and plans about detaining him upon his return to Atlanta were already discussed by authorities.
Thinking he was simply returning home, Tunick was shocked when agents met him at the airport and immediately escorted him to a room for what was described as a “secondary inspection.”
He was then asked about certain child sexual abuse images, followed by a request to surrender his phone for data collection. He agreed after hearing that they would confiscate it if he didn’t.
