Liberty Safe, the company currently facing backlash for giving the access code to a safe owned by a January 6 defendant to the FBI, announced a change to its company policy Thursday regarding how it complies with law enforcement in the wake of the controversy.
The company faced intense backlash for giving the FBI access to the safe of January 6 defendant Nathan Hughes, revealing to a wide audience that the company stores users’ access codes. Liberty Safe released a statement acknowledging the controversy, offering customers the opportunity to revoke the company’s access to their safe’s code, and changing their law enforcement cooperation practices to now “require a subpoena that legally compels Liberty Safe” before complying.
In the statement posted to X, formerly Twitter, Liberty Safe explained the master access code was stored, according to “industry standards,” to help “customers regain access to their safe for a wide range of reasons,” and added that the company “process over 4,000 requests of this type annually,” and thus regularly provides code retrieval services to safe owners who can prove their identity.
Liberty Safe is also allowing customers to opt-out of the program, and “revised” its law enforcement cooperation policies to “require a subpoena that legally compels Liberty Safe to supply access codes” and will only provide the codes if they “still exist in our system.”
— Liberty Safe (@libertysafeinc) September 7, 2023
Sources familiar with Liberty Safe told The Georgia Star News that Hughes’ safe was not an electronic safe, but rather a manual combination safe that was previously registered with the company. The source claimed that registering a product with Liberty Safe gives the company access to a master access code, which is what was given to law enforcement. The same source said Liberty Safe intends to extend its new policy regarding law enforcement cooperation to customers with older safes.
The Georgia Star News contacted Liberty Safe to confirm this, but did not receive an immediate response.
Liberty Safe originally said it “had no knowledge of any of the details surrounding” the January 6 investigation “at the time” the FBI provided a warrant seeking access. At the time, the company noted it “has repeatedly denied requests for access codes without a warrant in the past.”
— Liberty Safe (@libertysafeinc) September 6, 2023
Still, some conservatives remain unsatisfied with the company’s response. Breitbart called Liberty Safe’s statement “damage control,” and highlighted social media posts from prominent conservatives.
“Your guns are not safe in a Liberty Safe,” wrote Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk on X. “Return them immediately. Cancel any orders. They will give your passcode to the feds.”
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Georgia Star News and a reporter for the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Liberty Safe” by Liberty Safe.Â
