Rudy Giuliani says warrant illegal since agents already had data 'from the iCloud'

Rudy Giuliani said a raid on his home Wednesday was unconstitutional because federal agencies had already obtained his data "from the iCloud."

The former New York mayor and attorney for Donald Trump said that FBI agents arrived at this house early Wednesday morning with a warrant for electronic devices. On Thursday evening, Giuliani appeared on Fox News Thursday to explain his side of the story.

Giuliani said that the federal agents took "seven or eight electronic items of mine," according to Mediaite. After they declined to take two or three hard drives, Giuliani says that he urged them to reconsider, claiming that they belonged to Hunter Biden.

Giuliani claimed that the warrant was "completely illegal," stating that the only way for law enforcement to get a search warrant is to "show that there is evidence that the person is going to destroy the evidence, or is going to run away with the evidence." Giuliani's interpretation of the use of search warrants and why they are issued does not appear consistent with New York or Federal law, as it pertains to digital media and devices.

Additionally, Giuliani claimed that the warrant wasn't necessary because the Department of Justice had already gathered data from Apple's cloud services.

"And they also got it from the iCloud," Giuliani told Fox News, gesturing up at the sky. "So there was no — there was no justification for that warrant. It is an illegal, unconstitutional warrant."

Giuliani: They also got it from the icloud *gestures upwards* pic.twitter.com/meN4c0zG3D
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 30, 2021

A lawyer for Giuliani on also said that federal agents had penetrated his iCloud account long before the search warrant was executed on Wednesday, The Daily Beast reported Thursday. It isn't clear what "penetrated" means as presented by Giuliani's lawyer, but Apple has an entire division that responds to search warrants served on the company.

Apple does not casually provide iCloud data to law enforcement agencies. It will hand over information stored in the cloud if served with a subpoena or warrant.

Among other data, iCloud accounts can store information such as photos, text messages, emails, app data, and App Store purchase history. It also isn't specifically clear what Giuliani was referring to, when he said that the Department of Justice had all his data from iCloud.

The Cupertino tech giant publishes a report twice a year detailing both government and private requests for user data. According to the latest report, data requests were down from the prior six-month period.

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50 Comments

crowley 10431 comments · 15 Years

About 3 years ago

What a clown :D

tnet-primary 242 comments · 13 Years

There is literally no reason for this to be an article on AI. Because he used the term “iCloud” in his argument? And the last three paragraphs of the article - general commentary on Apple’s work with government requests - have been covered, ad nauseam, in other pieces.

Stay out of politics, please.

jbock 4 comments · 4 Years

tnet-primary said:

There is literally no reason for this to be an article on AI. Because he used the term “iCloud” in his argument? And the last three paragraphs of the article - general commentary on Apple’s work with government requests - have been covered, ad nauseam, in other pieces.

Stay out of politics, please.

Staying out of politics is not a reasonable request. a few examples worth covering:
Apple's compliance with a range of government requests for data, censorship, alterations to device security, etc.
Tax incentives / other programs in US and overseas that impact the company

rob53 3307 comments · 13 Years

tnet-primary said:

There is literally no reason for this to be an article on AI. Because he used the term “iCloud” in his argument? And the last three paragraphs of the article - general commentary on Apple’s work with government requests - have been covered, ad nauseam, in other pieces.

Stay out of politics, please.

Since when has AI stayed out of politics. They usually just turn comments off. I would like to have seen AI go into more depth on what's actually stored on iCloud vs what's only on the iPhone. This would have been the perfect article for AI to present regardless of who owned the iPhone.

Speaking of Rudy, if he knows so much about an iPhone and iCloud, he should have taken precautions and not stored his backup and, maybe photos, on iCloud. Store them only on your Mac/PC and make sure they're encrypted.

Mike Wuerthele 6901 comments · 8 Years

tnet-primary said:

There is literally no reason for this to be an article on AI. Because he used the term “iCloud” in his argument? And the last three paragraphs of the article - general commentary on Apple’s work with government requests - have been covered, ad nauseam, in other pieces.

Stay out of politics, please.

We have very frequently been requested to increase our coverage of Apple as it relates to political matters. In fact, those requests greatly outnumber the times that we have been asked to stop doing so. And, I'm not sure why you're calling this "political" because our coverage on this is not that in any way.

You'll probably find that the other coverage of this particular matter in other venues exclude "general commentary on Apple’s work with government requests" -- which is the entire point of the matter.