A Month After Search Warrant, Alec Baldwin Hasn't Turned Over Phone

Baldwin's lawyer says it will happen this week
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 10, 2022 3:15 AM CST
Updated Jan 14, 2022 1:34 AM CST
Alec Baldwin Rails Against Report That He's 'Not Complying' With Warrant
Actor Alec Baldwin attends a news conference at United Nations headquarters on Sept. 21, 2015.   (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)

Update: Nearly one month after a judge approved the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office's search warrant for Alec Baldwin's phone, the actor has yet to turn it over to authorities. The sheriff's office released a statement Thursday detailing the timeline and noting that on Dec. 20, after getting the Santa Fe District Attorney's Office involved, they were told negotiations were underway for the phone to be handed over—yet they still don't have it. In response to the press release, Baldwin's lawyer tells People that an agreement was just reached last weekend, and that the phone will be turned over this week. He says the "process" and "logistics" simply took a while: "Ever since this tragic incident, Mr. Baldwin has continued to cooperate with the authorities, and any suggestion to the contrary is simply untrue." Our original story from Monday follows:

Alec Baldwin is "1,000% going to comply" with authorities as they continue to probe the fatal shooting on the set of Rust, he insisted in a nearly 13-minute Instagram video over the weekend. "Any suggestion that I am not complying with requests or orders or demands or search warrants about my phone, that’s bulls---, that’s a lie," says Baldwin, who was holding the gun when it went off, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Authorities do indeed have a search warrant for his phone, but he says the process is taking a while because one state (New Mexico, where the movie was filming) is making the request of another state, New York (where Baldwin lives), ABC News reports.

Authorities also have to specify exactly what they want from his phone, he says: "They can't just go through your phone and take, you know, your photos or your love letters to your wife or what have you." But, he says, per People, once all the red tape has been cut through, "no one wants the truth more than I do." Per the New York Post, Baldwin vehemently pushed back on a prior Post story in which legal experts suggested he may not be turning over his phone because it contains "incriminating" evidence or other sensitive material. (More Alec Baldwin stories.)

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