This is not a certainty at all. How do we know the FBI didn't simply remember the password they had changed after seizing the phone? I wouldn't expect them to tell the public the truth about how they accessed it.
“This is not a certainty at all. How do we know the FBI didn’t simply remember the password they had changed after seizing the phone? I wouldn’t expect them to tell the public the truth about how they accessed it. “
I wouldn’t trust the FBI to tell us the truth no matter what has happened. From what I’ve read, the FBI was about to loose the court fight with Apple. So it could be that all of this commentary about “how the FBI doesn’t need Apple’s help any longer” could also be a lie as an attempt to blunt the truth about the their litigation failure. They would never want it known publically that they were about to loose in court.
FBI = Famous But Incompetent. Somebody probably called up a friend at the NSA, who got into the phone in the time it took his buddy to go get them a coffee at the corner diner. The FBI, CIA, and NSA don’t like each much, that’s no secret. Their open dislike of each other and lack of cooperation is the reason 9-11 happened.