The Government’s Case

Posted: March 11th, 2016

By Robert J. Eatinger, Jr.

Bob has 35 years of experience practicing law in the fields of national security, intelligence, and international law. He is a solo practitioner at Robert J. Eatinger, Jr., PLLC, practicing federal law with a national security and intelligence law focus and the founding Principal of SpyLaw Consulting, LLC. Bob retired from the Central Intelligence Agency in 2015 where he was the Senior Deputy General Counsel. He served as CIA’s Acting General Counsel from October 2013 to March 2014. Before being named the Senior Deputy General Counsel, Bob had held senior operational law positions and been chief of CIA’s litigation division. Bob also served on active duty in the United States Navy, Judge Advocate General’s Corps, and retired in 2013 as a Captain with 30 years of combined active and reserve service.

The current conflict between Apple and the FBI over developing a means to circumvent security features on the iPhone has reignited the tense debate about the tradeoff between security and privacy in the U.S. The Cipher Brief spoke to Robert Eatinger, former Senior Deputy General Counsel at the CIA, about the Apple case. He says that the FBI has the law on its side, but the government and the tech industry must learn to work together again in order to maintain both privacy and security for law-abiding Americans.

The Cipher Brief: What do you think about the court order to compel Apple to unlock the iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters? What’s your take on the legal precedent being set here?

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