FBI asks Apple for help cracking Pensacola gunman’s iPhones

James Baker, who served as the FBI’s general counsel during the encryption battle over the San Bernardino phone, said there are definite similarities to the new case, even though he now has a more favorable view of encryption than he did then.

“It strikes me that the government today is in a similar position that we found ourselves in, in terms of owing a duty to the victims and their families to try to pursue every logical lead,” said Baker, now the director of national security and cyber security at the think tank R Street Institute.

When it comes to the debates over encryption and constitutional protections against unreasonable searches, Baker said, “The problem is not the Fourth Amendment, the problem is our U.S. statutes. No court has found that they empower the government to do what the government wants them to do.”