{"id":62424,"date":"2025-12-07T09:33:22","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T14:33:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=62424"},"modified":"2025-12-09T14:13:54","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T19:13:54","slug":"d-d-c-warrantless-computer-search-ordered-stopped","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=62424","title":{"rendered":"D.D.C.: Warrantless computer search ordered stopped"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>An attorney whose computer was seized and copied gets a TRO against further searches on a prima facie showing of its warrantless search. <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.dcd.287269\/gov.uscourts.dcd.287269.10.0_1.pdf\">Richman v. United States<\/a>, Civil Misc. Action No. 25-0170 (CKK) (D.D.C. Dec. 6, 2025):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>The Court concludes that Petitioner Richman is likely to succeed on the merits of his claim that the Government has violated his Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches and seizures by retaining a complete copy of all files on his personal computer (an \u201cimage\u201d of the computer) and searching that image without a warrant. See United States v. Comey, No. 1:25-CR-272-MSN-WEF, 2025 WL 3202693, at *4\u20137 (E.D. Va. Nov. 17, 2025). The Court further concludes that Petitioner Richman is also likely to succeed in showing that, because of those violations, he is entitled to the return of the image under Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 41(g).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Petitioner Richman has also shown that, absent an injunction, he will be irreparably harmed by the ongoing violation of his Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable seizures arising from the Government\u2019s continuing retention of the image of his computer and related materials. Finally, the Court finds that the balance of the equities and the public interest weigh in Petitioner Richman\u2019s favor and support a limited temporary restraining order that is narrowly tailored to preserving the status quo while this Court considers his Motion for Return of Property on an expedited basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Updates: ATL: <a href=\"https:\/\/abovethelaw.com\/2025\/12\/doj-locked-out-of-comey-evidence-it-never-should-have-had\/?utm_campaign=Above%20the%20Law%20Daily&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8igObEplAdOUC58zZrj_d0Xls_loKwALB9hFExvsCyw_DnYtb4O_S823Gm9UfIleNhpqxxvAn9ASPDEv8QYbR50Rr2Hw&amp;_hsmi=393624323&amp;utm_content=393624323&amp;utm_source=hs_email\">DOJ Locked Out Of Comey Evidence It Never Should Have Had<\/a> by Andrew Torrez and Liz Dye; WaPo: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/national-security\/2025\/12\/07\/james-comey-daniel-richman-emails\/\">Judge blocks access to emails seized from James Comey\u2019s lawyer<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An attorney whose computer was seized and copied gets a TRO against further searches on a prima facie showing of its warrantless search. Richman v. United States, Civil Misc. Action No. 25-0170 (CKK) (D.D.C. Dec. 6, 2025):<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-computer-searches","category-rule-41g-return-of-property"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62424"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62434,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62424\/revisions\/62434"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}