The complaint sort of explains that:
Paras. 43 onwards.
Basically, he asked for an attorney several times.
They allegedly told him that he wasn’t under arrest so wasn’t entitled to an attorney.
He then asked to be released (since he wasn’t under arrest obviously).
Instead of releasing him, they said he was being uppity and locked him in a cell, where they sent a ‘supervisor’ to give him the “we don’t want to lock you up, why won’t you help yourself by submitting to us” talk.
They then put him through the round of several different people asking him the same questions, told him the airline would of course rebook his flight since he was held up by CBP and that he could leave as soon as he opened up his phone.
Otherwise they’d carry on asking him pointless questions until they got bored, take his phone away and give it back to him in 30 days.
He pointed out that he had photos of his wife without her headscarf on his phone and a female agent promised that if he agreed to unlock it she’d go through the phone there and then (with the unspoken implication hanging fairly heavily overhead that if he didn’t agree the (for Mr & Mrs Elsharkawi) very intimate photos of his wife would be pored over by some sweaty male CBP operatives for 30 days.
