Apple slams 'false claims' after FBI says it provided 'effectively no help' accessing the Pensacola shooter's iPhones

Apple is hitting back against the Department of Justice.

Attorney General William Barr and FBI Director Christopher Wray in a press conference on Monday announced they obtained new evidence regarding the 2019 shooting at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida by accessing the shooter's iPhones. But Wray said Apple provided "effectively no help."

Barr also slammed Apple in the presser, saying the fact that the company designs its phones "in a way that only the user can unlock the contents, no matter what the circumstances" has "dangerous consequences for the public safety and national security, and is, in my judgment, unacceptable." He also accused the company of being "willing to accommodate authoritarian regimes when it serves their business interests."

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Apple issued a response to this scathing press conference, saying in a statement it did support law enforcement during its investigation into the Pensacola shooting by providing "every piece of information" available to them.

"As a proud American company, we consider supporting law enforcement's important work our responsibility," Apple said. "The false claims made about our company are an excuse to weaken encryption and other security measures that protect millions of users and our national security."

Wray had said during the press conference on Monday that although the FBI in this instance found a way to obtain the information it needed, "the technique that we developed" has "pretty limited application," and so it's "not a fix for our broader Apple problem."