They already knew that every phone number, every message, and every email, sent or received by that iPhone 5C, except for a few calls from Farouk's monster wife, were work related. I maintain that what they found when they got into it is that it contained only work related content. They got these data from the carrier, Verizon, who was required by law to keep a record of every thing that went into and out of that device. They also had a 45 day old iCloud back up that matched the record from Verizon.
Both Farouk and his Monster Wife Malik had obtained inexpensive off-the-shelf burner Android burner phones—which the ISIS and Al Qaida terrorists websites both recommend be purchased for any terrorism activities—which can be provisioned with an anonymous phone number and minutes without a contract merely by purchasing off-the-shelf cards which are untraceable and un-tappable because no law enforcement agency is going to know the terrorist even has them. These burner phones were destroyed by the simple expediency of smashing them with a hammer into unreadable and unrecoverable shards before they left to do their evil deed. They also destroyed both of their laptops by the same means, taking the time to remove the hard drives from the laptops and smashing them separately.
Farouk did not smash his employment provided iPhone 5C because he never used it for any terrorism related activity. Ergo, the FBI found nothing probative or useful on the device.
” Farouk did not smash his employment provided iPhone 5C because he never used it for any terrorism related activity. Ergo, the FBI found nothing probative or useful on the device. ...”
The fact that the terrorist did not destroy this phone does NOT prove that he never used it for terrorist activity. Terrorist (and criminals) can and often make stupid mistakes. The FBI HAS to do a proper and complete investigation, which includes unlocking this phone for any possible additional evidence.