San Bernardino Officials: Apple ID Password for Terrorist’s iPhone Reset at FBI Request

This story keeps getting weirder. John Paczkowski, at BuzzFeed:

The FBI has claimed that the password was changed by someone at the San Bernardino Health Department. Friday night, however, things took a further turn when the San Bernardino County’s official Twitter account stated, “The County was working cooperatively with the FBI when it reset the iCloud password at the FBI’s request.”

County spokesman David Wert told BuzzFeed News on Saturday afternoon the tweet was an authentic statement, but he had nothing further to add.

The Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment on Saturday; an Apple spokesperson said the company had no additional comment beyond prior statements.

The additional wrinkle here is that when the FBI first revealed this, in this footnote (screenshot) of their legal motion (whole motion linked above, on “claimed”), they strongly implied that the San Bernardino Health Department did this on their own, like they were a bunch of yokels who panicked and did the wrong thing. Instead, it turns out, they were following the FBI’s instructions.

The FBI says this happened “in the hours after the attack”. My question: How many hours?

★ Saturday, 20 February 2016