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Hours after France’s Minister of Higher Education and Research Philippe Baptiste announced that an unnamed researcher was stopped at the US border earlier this month after authorities found messages about President Donald Trump on his phone, US officials late Thursday denied the claims, saying the researcher held “confidential information” on an electronic device.
Baptiste stated that US authorities discovered personal messages on the researcher’s phone, which included opinions about President Donald Trump’s administration and its research policies.
The space researcher was travelling to a conference near Houston on March 9 when US authorities found that his phone “contained exchanges with colleagues and friends in which he expressed a personal opinion on the Trump administration’s research policies”, CNN quoted Baptiste as saying.
The researcher was then denied entry to the US and expelled from the country, Baptiste reportedly said, adding, “Freedom of opinion, free research, and academic freedom are values that we will continue to proudly uphold.”
The French government expressed its outrage, with Baptiste vowing to defend the rights of French researchers worldwide, regardless of the country in which they find themselves.
“I will defend the right of all French researchers to adhere to these values, while respecting the law, regardless of the country in which they find themselves,” Baptiste further said in a statement, according to CNN.
Rejecting the suggestion that the researcher’s removal was politically motivated, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the researcher had been found with “confidential information” on his device from Los Alamos National Laboratory, which was in violation of a non-disclosure agreement.
According to the CNN report, McLaughlin further said the researcher had admitted to taking the information without permission and had attempted to conceal it.
“The French researcher in question was in possession of confidential information on his electronic device from Los Alamos National Laboratory—in violation of a non-disclosure agreement—something he admitted to taking without permission and attempted to conceal,” she said, according to CNN.
US Customs and Border Protection also weighed in, stating that all individuals entering the US are subject to inspection and that any material on an individual’s electronic device that raises concerns could prompt further analysis.
Hilton Beckham, CBP Assistant Commissioner of Public Affairs, told the publication, “Claims that such decisions are politically motivated are completely unfounded.”
