Trump DHS admits it invented child abuse claims against activist to unlock phone: report

A federal officer under President Donald Trump admitted there was no reason to accuse an activist of having child pornography before agents demanded his phone passcode.

Public defenders for activist Samuel Tunick made the claim in a court brief filed Monday, citing testimony from Customs and Border Protection Officer Findley at a July hearing in Atlanta.

At the time of his detention early last year, Officers told Tunick they were looking for pedophiles and child pornography, while their own alert and reports pointed to suspected terrorism and his activism, according to his lawyers. Tunick was flying back to Atlanta from the Dominican Republic on Jan. 24, 2025, four days after Trump took office, the brief says.

Three hours before he landed, Travis McGhie, a task force officer working with the Department of Homeland Security, emailed CBP officers at the airport, according to a copy in the brief.

“TUNICK is under investigation by HSI/JTTF for suspected terrorist activities. Please have Baggage secondary conduct a 100% baggage exam, retain all electronics and collect passcodes,” McGhie wrote, using the initials for Homeland Security Investigations and the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

The email was “devoid of any evidence supporting that claim,” Tunick’s lawyers noted in a court filing.

In a March motion, the lawyers said the government was investigating Tunick over his ties to Defend the Atlanta Forest, a movement opposing a $115 million police training center.

The government calls the movement an “Anti-Government, Anti-Authority Violent Extremist Group” but has not shown evidence Tunick took part in any related crime, the motion says.

Inside a private room at the airport that night, officers from a CBP terrorism response team told Tunick they were “looking for people who are pedophiles,” the motion says.

Officers asked whether they would find “kiddie porn” on his phone, and Tunick immediately denied it, according to Monday’s brief. Findley then asked again whether he had “anything like that” on his phone.

“As the evidentiary hearing made clear, these unfounded accusations were nothing more than pretext for a fishing expedition into the depths of Mr. Tunick’s devices,” his lawyers wrote.

“Officer Findley acknowledged that officers had no reason whatsoever to believe Mr. Tunick possessed child pornography,” they added.

Early in the questioning, according to the brief, Tunick told officers, “I don’t really want to speak without a lawyer anymore.”

“Because you’re refusing to talk, which is your right, we have the authority to go through your phone to see what we’re looking for,” an officer told him, according to the brief.

“Either you can give us your password so we can go through it with no problem, or you can refuse to do that and, unfortunately, we will have to seize your phone. Give it to the FBI,” Officer Castro said.

“Not at this moment, no,” Castro replied when Tunick asked again to speak to his lawyer.

Tunick eventually gave the officers a passcode, but the phone never unlocked, the brief says. When officers entered the code, “the screen went blank, flashed several times and the phone appeared to restart,” according to a government account cited in the March motion.

Officers found nothing illegal in his possession, the brief says. In November 2025, a grand jury charged Tunick with a single count of deleting the phone’s contents to keep the government from seizing them, according to the indictment.

His lawyers wrote that Tunick “has not been charged with committing any ‘terroristic’ acts.” He faces up to five years in federal prison if convicted, 404 Media reported.

Tunick is being prosecuted by the office of U.S. Attorney Theodore Hertzberg, which in June charged two people over an alleged 2022 fire and explosives attack on a contractor building the police training center, according to a Justice Department release.

The release says that prosecution is part of a White House-directed initiative “targeting individuals and organizations engaged in political violence.” It does not mention Tunick.

“Criminal agitators who travel to this district to engage in such conduct will be prosecuted and held accountable, even years after the fact,” Hertzberg said in the release.

Prosecutors have until Nov. 9 to respond to the brief, according to the court’s scheduling order.