Liberty Safe, "America's #1 heavy-duty home and gun safe manufacturer," according to their website, issued a statement late Tuesday night confirming that they'd given the FBI an access code to a customer's gun safe in response to a request on August 30, 2023. That request came during a raid on the home of a man who'd attended a protest on January 6.
— Liberty Safe (@libertysafeinc) September 6, 2023
The statement reads:
On August 30, 2023, Liberty Safe was contacted by the FBI requesting the access code to the safe of an individual for whom they had a warrant to search their property. Our company protocol is to provide access codes to law enforcement if a warrant grants them access to a property. After receiving the request, we received proof of the valid warrant, and only then did we provide them with an access code. Liberty Safe had no knowledge of any of the details surrounding the investigation at the time.
Liberty Safe is devoted to protecting the personal property and 2nd amendment rights of our customers and has repeatedly denied requests for access codes without a warrant in the past. We do not give out combinations without proper legal documentation being provided by authorities.
We regularly update our policies to ensure both compliance with federal and state law and reasonable consumer privacy protections within the law. First and foremost, Liberty Safe is committed to preserving our customers’ rights, and we will remain unwavering in those values.
The incident they're referring to is the arrest of Nathan Hughes in Arkansas on August 30, 2023, after an FBI raid related to Hughes' attendance at the January 6 protests. On Monday evening the Hodgetwins tweeted out Hughes' story, including that "the feds called the manufacturer of his Liberty Gun Safe and got the passcode to get into it too."
🚨 Last week, a friend of ours was raided by the feds over J6, his name is Nathan Hughes and he’s from Fayetteville, Arkansas. Nate was raided by the FBI and arrested at gun point. His girlfriend (who just had a miscarriage) was held at gun point and put in handcuffs. The FBI… pic.twitter.com/LOpMQ28eUJ
— Hodgetwins (@hodgetwins) September 5, 2023
The full tweet shares more disturbing information, including that the FBI turned off his security cameras and held his girlfriend at gunpoint and put her in handcuffs.
Last week, a friend of ours was raided by the feds over J6, his name is Nathan Hughes and he’s from Fayetteville, Arkansas. Nate was raided by the FBI and arrested at gun point. His girlfriend (who just had a miscarriage) was held at gun point and put in handcuffs. The FBI turned off his security cameras, unplugged his internet, and flipped his house upside down in a search. The feds called the manufacturer of his Liberty Gun Safe and got the passcode to get into it too. All for protesting at the Capitol over 2 1/2 years ago.
He is being charged with crimes related to January 6th. He didn’t assault anyone and he didn’t vandalize anything. He is being labeled a domestic terrorist and a traitor to his country by woke leftists and the media.
Nate is just like us…he’s an outspoken American Patriot…he loves freedom, loves his country, and would do anything to preserve our rights. He’s been fighting to save our country for years now.
He’s also a small business owner with a family that relies on him.
We all know how heated this political climate is getting, but they’ve pushed too far and it’s time for people to speak up for people getting screwed by the system. BLM and Antifa can go burn down our cities and get off the hook, but Trump supporters get raided and rounded up for protesting.
Nate’s legal bills to fight these charges will be over $100,000, so we’re donating $5,000 to Nathan’s defense fund to start it out, and hope you can donate something too. Link in next tweet.
Obviously, that tweet set off a flurry of social media activity and speculation about Liberty Safe, leading to the company's acknowledgment that they had given the FBI "the access code" to Nathan Hughes' gun safe. While it could be tempting to at least give them credit for coming clean, they were simply trying to get slightly ahead of the s**t storm - once court filings related to the raid and search are made public, they'll clearly show that the feds made contact with Liberty and were given the/an access code. It's not really clear whether this is an access code only for that safe or is some kind of universal backdoor access that all Liberty safes have.
Regardless, the assertion that they are committed to protecting the personal property and 2nd Amendment rights of their customers and preserving their rights is a joke. Even if there's a valid warrant for law enforcement to search the premises, if there was no backdoor access available the feds would have had to find another way into Hughes' safe and perhaps he would have had the opportunity to have his attorney challenge the search warrant. It's not up to Liberty to decide whether or not a warrant being served on one of their customers is valid. If they're so committed to their customers' privacy and protecting their fundamental rights, they could at least go through the motions of having their own legal team fight requests for access. Even better, they can ensure that there's no backdoor access available, period.
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