Comey: FBI, Apple court clash created unproductive ’emotion’

By ERIC TUCKER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI Director James Comey says he’s glad a court fight in California over access to a locked iPhone has ended because it “was creating an emotion around the issue that was not productive.”

Comey told law school students Tuesday that he is confident that lawsuits aren’t the best solution for resolving the clash between privacy and national security.

The Justice Department in February asked a judge to force Apple Inc. to help the FBI hack into an iPhone used by a gunman in the mass killing in San Bernardino, California. But that fight effectively ended last month when the FBI said it had managed to access the phone without Apple’s help.

Comey says one benefit of the dispute has been greater public dialogue about the balance between privacy and security.

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