Federal prosecutors in Detroit signaled Thursday they will appeal a judge throwing out digital evidence seized by investigators in the hacking case against former University of Michigan football co-offensive coordinator Matt Weiss.
An appeal to the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio, could salvage incriminating evidence gathered during a high-profile investigation that led to prosecutors accusing Weiss of hacking into the personal accounts of thousands of female college athletes across the country. Prosecutors said he stole intimate photographs and videos, including some showing students engaged in explicit sexual acts from 2015-23.
The notice of appeal was filed nearly one month after U.S. District Judge David Lawson concluded evidence obtained from computers, tablets, and smartphones seized by University of Michigan Police officers in 2022 through state court search warrants violated the 4th Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. That included evidence from three computers at Schembechler Hall — the nerve center of the football team — and 14 electronic devices at Weiss’ house, including cell phones, tablets and storage devices.
But the judge refused to toss evidence the FBI agents seized from Weiss’ iCloud account. The iCloud search warrant allowed UM police to seize all emails, text messages and any attached photos and videos and the contents of all files, including photos and videos stored in the iCloud.
“The government’s use of the iCloud data does not run afoul of the Fourth Amendment,” Lawson wrote.
In court Thursday, U.S. Attorney Jerome Gorgon filed a certification that read: “…the appeal of the order suppressing evidence in this case is not taken for purposes of delay and that the evidence is a substantial proof of a fact material in this proceeding.”
Weiss is scheduled to stand trial Sept. 22 in federal court in Detroit in a high-profile case that has further tarnished the scandal-plagued UM athletics department.
Weiss was charged with 24 crimes in March 2025, including 14 counts of unauthorized access to computers and 10 counts of aggravated identity theft. If convicted, he faces up to five years on each computer charge and two years on each identity theft charge.
During a June hearing, Weiss’ lawyer, David Benowitz, told the judge that the search warrants obtained by the University of Michigan Police Department were illegal because they were based on information that wasn’t requested.
Benowitz said police initially asked Apple to provide information from Weiss’s phones and other devices from 2022-23, but the company sent information from 2020, six screenshots, that the attorney claimed were the basis for a subsequent federal warrant.
“Not only did the illegal search prompt the federal warrant, it dictated what to look for,” Benowitz said. “This is police misconduct or negligence. … Does the government get to use illegally obtained state warrants? The stakes are extremely high.”
Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Wyse has argued the federal investigation wasn’t prompted by the UM police warrant.
“This alleged violation that may or may not have happened did not factor into the government’s case,” Wyse said. “The FBI even told (UM police) ‘we don’t want your data until we can establish that there was a federal crime.’ So the FBI never heard of UofM PD’s findings until after taking the case.”
rsnell@detroitnews.com
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Feds in Matt Weiss case will appeal tossed evidence as UM trial looms
Reporting by Robert Snell, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Robert Snell, The Detroit News | USA TODAY Network
