Government officials did not go into detail about what was found on the phone.
Because they found nothing and never really expected to. This was about FBI seeking legal permission for a blanket search of all American's Apple products, without warrants, evidence, or even suspicion of wrongdoing.
Now that they've created a dangerous bug that could hack the phones of all Americans, whether they are private, military, Secretary of State, or even FBI agents, will they do the right thing to protect us? If they don't, we know for certain that they are now a rogue agency that considers itself above the law, with ulterior goals that don't include defending the Constitution.
He would not name the "third party" that helped the FBI. And he refused to say whether the FBI will disclose this hacking method to Apple so the company can protect future phones from being hacked this way.
Normally, in a situation like this, the FBI must hold a high-level meeting with the president's National Security Council to discuss whether to tip off Apple about the hacking method, according to a senior Obama administration official. Hacks are only possible through vulnerabilities in technology, and the same method used by the FBI could be used by foreign governments to hack Americans' iPhones.
The FBI should have that discussion immediately, said Ross Schulman, senior policy counsel at the Open Technology Institute, a think tank.
"The bug is, so far as we know, widely distributed and can give complete access to a device that so many of us rely on daily. Those are great reasons to tell Apple so they can fix the problem," he said.