Newly released records [SEE HERE] from a FOIA show the Weissmann/Mueller special counsel team “accidentally” wiped 15 iPhones of data early in 2018 after the phones were requested by the office of inspector general for review.
Mueller’s lead investigator Andrew Weissmann accidentally wiped two phones himself; through a lengthy process of entering the wrong passcode several times over a period of three hours; removing data to show his activity during the special counsel. Weissmann claimed to have entered the wrong password (takes ten attempts) and that erased all the data. Greg Andre, a former deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department’s criminal division, made the same claim.
Wiping your phone to hide damaging information only works if the other phone you are communicating with wipes the same data. Guess what happened? Yup, exactly that.
James Quarles III who worked with Mueller in private practice at the Washington office of Wilmer-Hale, claimed his iPhone magically erased itself.
Before joining the special counsel team Rush Atkinson worked under Andrew Weissmann in the DOJ’s criminal fraud section where he specialized in financial fraud. Atkinson claims he too entered the wrong password ten times and accidentally erased all the data.
At least twelve other people assigned to the special counsel investigation had similar “phone wiped/erased” issues which blocked the inspector general from his review.
One “accidental” method used repeatedly was to place the iPhone in airplane mode and then lock it without providing the password. Retrieval attempts then erased all data, and returned to factory settings after unsuccessful passcode entries…