[caf]

Well, part of their job is a national police force where the endgame takes place in the public sphere.

The FBI does also have a significant counter-intelligence function where the endgame is often "foreign diplomat declared persona non grata".

[pvg]

This detail does not support 'FBI lies to federal judiciary in psyop to mislead everyone about their iPhone-cracking capabilities' in any meaningful way.

[caf]

Well, no. That's a bit of a silly position.

[nickpsecurity]

I agree that's a silly scenario. That didn't stop it from being their exact position in San Bernardino. They were using it to prop up the All Writs Act as a tool to force any telecom to provide backdoors or exploits for them. They wanted it as a precedent. It would make their job so much easier. They bullshitted the courts saying they needed Apple's help, Apple resisted well, they backed off, and then then they suddenly could crack it anyway. Tada!