the information on his phone as part of a border search.

Court filings do not contain any additional details about the investigation. Nor do they indicate who conducted the investigation, and do not indicate why the investigation was closed.

Reid's report recommended the U.S. District Court judge handling Halloran's case deny his motion to suppress the contents of the phone - and on Tuesday, Halloran's public defender filed a letter opposing that report.

Lawyer Ashley Kay contended that Halloran refused to give his passcode four separate times, and that the officers and their  Tear Sheet  misstated the law and refused to let him leave - even though he was free to leave without his devices.

Kay also questioned the rationale for stopping Halloran, noting that Reyes put in his inspection report that Halloran was initially flagged for a secondary investigation because he declared he was bringing alcohol to the U.S. from Cuba.

 This contradiction was never resolved by the government and raises questions as to the true genesis and good faith, or lack thereof, of Mr. Halloran's selection and detention,  she wrote.  In any event, no evidence presented at the hearing amounted to reasonable suspicion or probable cause that - 15 years after an  expired lookout' - Mr. Halloran was committing a specific crime or that evidence of a specific crime would be found on his cell phone. 

Halloran and his lawyer did not return messages seeking comment.

Halloran, once a rising star in the Republican Party in Queens, was convicted in 2014 for his role in two different bribery and corruption schemes. Before his arrest, he was known as the first elected official in New York who practiced Theodism, a neo-pagan religion.

He was sentenced a year later to 10 years in federal prison but served just over half of that time, after his release in June 2020 as part of an effort by the Bureau of Prisons to stop the spread of COVID-19, the Queens Daily Eagle reported at the time.