US rebuts Apple claim on password reset in iPhone case

WASHINGTON (AP) — A decision to reset the password on an iCloud account associated with one of the San Bernardino attackers did not effectively thwart the investigation into the shooting, FBI officials said in a court filing as part of the Justice Department's ongoing encryption dispute with Apple Inc.

The statement was part of a broader Justice Department filing designed to encourage a federal magistrate to affirm her decision last month to force Apple to help the FBI gain access to Farook's phone.

"[...] Apple is not some distant, disconnected third party unexpectedly and arbitrarily dragooned into helping solve a problem for which it bears no responsibility," Justice Department lawyers wrote.

[...] there is probable cause to believe there is evidence of a terrorist attack on that phone, and our legal system gives this Court the authority to see that it can be searched pursuant to a lawful warrant.

The government also rejected Apple's arguments that the software — intended to bypass an auto-erase function on the phone so that the FBI can remotely enter different passcodes without losing data — violated Apple's First Amendment rights by forcing it to create new computer code.