Apple chief security officer must face bribery charge over gun permits

Apple’s chief security officer, Thomas Moyer, must face a criminal charge that he bribed California officials for expedited gun licenses after a state appeals court revived a case that was dismissed two years ago.

Apple’s head of security indicted in concealed carry case

Joel Rosenblatt for Bloomberg News:

The company pursued the gun permits starting in 2017 so that Apple’s executive protection team could be armed after Moyer’s staff reported receiving more serious threats against Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook, according to the ruling.

A two-year investigation by the district attorney’s office found that two officials in the sheriff’s office held up the issuance of the concealed firearms licenses until the applicants gave something of value. In California, concealed weapon permits are issued by county sheriffs based on a finding of “good cause” to approve a resident’s application.

The iPad donations worth $50,000 to $80,000 were scuttled in 2019 when Moyer learned that the handling of weapons permits by the sheriff’s office was being investigated, according to the ruling.

In 2020, Moyer and the two sheriff’s officials were indicted by a grand jury. Moyer was charged with bribing an executive officer by making “a promise of iPads to the Sheriff’s Office” with the intent to influence an official action, according to the ruling.

Moyer’s lawyers then persuaded a county superior court judge to dismiss the charge on the grounds that a prosecutor gave erroneous instructions about the law to the grand jury.

The San Jose-based appeals court reversed that ruling, after the district attorney challenged it.

MacDailyNews Take: As we wrote back in November 2020:

Wherever the laws stipulate that “permits” are required, the potential for corruption by the permit issuers is increased. When the issuer is “the government,” it creates an impedance to reporting abusers for fear of retaliation. To whom do you report attempted bribery when it’s the police doing the extorting and you have no idea how far the corruption goes with “the government?”

Moyer and others, who were simply trying to achieve California “permits” just to be able to perform their jobs are largely the victims here, not the criminals.

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8 Comments

  1. I think your take is close, but not quite. Permits are created for the express purpose of extorting the populace. Corruption is the reason, not a side effect. Here in my small quaint CA town, I need a permit just to have a garage sale!

  2. Here in Montgomery County, Maryland, where county executives are disaffectionately [sic] referred to as monkeys, the same outrageous usurpation of our freedom is practiced daily.

  3. And request a sweetheart deal like Hunter Biden… a fine, no prison, and all future investigations into scandals to be void of any punishment. When that falls through, get daddy’s justice department to assign a conflict of interest special counsel and have your lawyers judge shop for a better venue! No one is above the law, right Democrats?!

  4. I love Apple, but damn… your fellow California citizens have to jump through hoops to protect themselves with a gun and you want special treatment cause your Apple, and now a bridge!? The irony here is that Apple is chock full of anti-gun cultists, so much so that they can’t even use a gun emoji anymore. I noticed you haven’t banned games and movies you sell that contain gun violence. You hypocrites.

  5. Since Tim Cook does not believe in police protection for everyday people or businesses and he doesn’t believe in the 2nd Amendment, or the Constitution in general, I am not sympathetic to his private police force that gives him security while his total fealty to Democrat gun control policies denies every day people the right to defend themselves. So, Tim, you should be prosecuted here. Not your employees.

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