Mysticism of Science

Search warrant documents made public yesterday show the FBI used the Triggerfish — a highly secretive and controversial cellphone sweeping technology — to zero in on Michael Cohen last year, AP's Michael Sisak reports:

• "Agents using a Triggerfish cell-site simulator tracked the whereabouts of Cohen's two iPhones to a pair of rooms a floor apart at the Manhattan hotel where he and his family had taken up residence while their apartment was being renovated."
• "Police can determine the location of a phone without the user even making a call or sending a text message. Some even allow law enforcement to listen in on conversations or see text messages as they're being sent and received."

The FBI "obtained logs of the numbers Cohen was calling and texting, and reams of location data — including for the time period just before the 2016 presidential election, when he negotiated hush-money payments."

• "They also got permission to press Cohen's thumb to the phones or hold them up to his face to unlock them."