Washington: Republican hopeful for US presidential elections Donald Trump has called on Americans to boycott Apple until it complies with the court order.
Trump made the comment during a question-and-answer session in Pawleys Island, South Carolina, where he's campaigning ahead of Saturday's first-in-the-South Republican presidential primary. Trump says Cook wants to prove "how liberal he is" and told the crowd to "boycott Apple until such time as they give up that security."
"What I think you ought to do is boycott Apple until such time they give that security number,” Trump said at a rally in South Carolina on Friday.
“I just thought of it,” the GOP frontrunner added. “Boycott Apple.”
Apple this week defied a court order to assist authorities in bypassing security features on a phone belonging to one of the attackers in the San Bernardino, Calif., assault that left 14 people dead.
In the latest volley between the federal government and one of the world's most respected companies, the Justice Department argued that Apple has the technical ability to comply with a court order issued this week — but won't do so because of its marketing strategy.
"Apple has attempted to design and market its products to allow technology, rather than the law, to control access to data which has been found by this court to be warranted for an important investigation," the filing states.
The Justice Department's motion, which seeks to force Apple to comply with Pym's order, appears aimed at rebutting some of the key objections of Apple and its supporters. It says that the software the government seeks, contrary to Apple's assertions, is not akin to a "master key, capable of opening hundreds of millions of locks." And it also rejects the idea that the court order placed an unreasonable burden on the company, saying Apple already has the technical wherewithal to satisfy it.
"To the extent that Apple claims that the order is unreasonably burdensome because it undermines Apple's marketing strategies or because it fears criticism for providing lawful access to the government, these concerns do not establish an undue burden," the government wrote.
Apple's written objection, already signaled by Cook in a message to Apple customers, is due next Friday.
Senior Apple executives said during a phone call with reporters Friday that the company had worked for hours, even days, with federal officials and investigators to try to gain access to Farook's iPhone. The executives, who insisted on anonymity to speak freely amid ongoing legal proceedings, said they went to the FBI in early January with four suggestions, including a workaround using iCloud. Prosecutors noted the four methods and their "deficiencies" in a footnote in their Friday court filing.
(with AP inputs)
