Speaker 1: Welcome to It Could Happen Here, I'm Garrison Davis. A
Speaker 1: few months ago, the Department of Justice indicted 15 anti-ICE
Speaker 1: protesters who participated in the community response to Operation Metro
Speaker 1: Surge in Minneapolis, Minnesota, earlier this year. Here's U.S. Attorney
Speaker 1: Daniel Rosen announcing the charges. in a press conference dated
Speaker 1: June 16, 2026.
Speaker 2: Last year, President Trump issued National Security Presidential Memorandum 7,
Speaker 2: which directed the Department of Justice to prioritize politically motivated violence.
Speaker 2: To accomplish that mission, the Deputy Attorney General stood up
Speaker 2: Joint Task Force Vanguard to enforce a national security strategy
Speaker 2: to investigate, prosecute, and disrupt violence those who engage in
Speaker 2: political violence and intimidation. Today, a federal indictment was unsealed,
Speaker 2: charging 15 defendants with conspiracy to impede or injure federal
Speaker 2: officers and other charges related to efforts of two Minneapolis-based
Speaker 2: Antifa groups that violently opposed the enforcement of federal law
Speaker 2: in our state.
Speaker 3: As U.S.
Speaker 1: Attorney Daniel Rosen said, All 15 quote-unquote Antifa defendants were
Speaker 1: charged with conspiracy to impede or injure an officer. According
Speaker 1: to the DOJ, the conspiracy to impede amounted to plans
Speaker 1: to temporarily block roadways around the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building,
Speaker 1: where ICE operations in the Twin Cities were and still
Speaker 1: are based out of. The start of the 95-page indictment reads, quote,
Speaker 1: The defendants were members and associates of Twin Cities Direct Action,
Speaker 1: which later changed its name to Direct Action Minnesota or DAM,
Speaker 1: an organization dedicated and committed to direct action against federal
Speaker 1: law and immigration enforcement. Direct action refers to disruptive and
Speaker 1: obstructive tactics used by participants to forcibly challenge, block, or
Speaker 1: stop immigration raids, detentions, and deportations. Dam describes itself as
Speaker 1: a decentralized coalition of working class people engaged in various
Speaker 1: forms of community defense against the current federal occupation happening
Speaker 1: within the wider metro area and against state and far-right
Speaker 1: violence more broadly, unquote. Here's attorney Daniel Rosen again at
Speaker 1: that press conference.
Speaker 2: The organization trains its members in the aggressive use of
Speaker 2: shields against law enforcement, surveillance, operational planning, and rapid mobilization.
Speaker 2: against law enforcement actions.
Speaker 1: The first piece of evidence presented by Rosen in this
Speaker 1: press conference is a Facebook post by one of the
Speaker 1: defendants reading, it's going to get so much worse and
Speaker 1: nonviolent ideology and our politicians aren't going to save us.
Speaker 1: We need to become ungovernable. We need to actively resist
Speaker 1: any way we can to materially stop the Nazi occupation forces.
Speaker 1: I do think it's worth noting that when President Trump
Speaker 1: spoke at the Libertarian Convention in 2024, the wall behind
Speaker 1: him featured giant text reading, Become Ungovernable. Now, most of
Speaker 1: this 95-page indictment is spent detailing random conversations on Signal
Speaker 1: and various group chats discussing First Amendment activity, planning protests...
Speaker 1: discussing how to go about fundraising, making flyers, participating in
Speaker 1: ICE rapid response, writing articles on Crimethink, and an anarchist
Speaker 1: speaking tour. All of which the indictment lists as, quote,
Speaker 1: overt acts in furtherance of the conspiracy. And that's how
Speaker 1: conspiracy charges work. Not all the overt acts themselves have
Speaker 1: to be illegal. In fact, they usually are not. They
Speaker 1: just have to be actions taken involving multiple people to
Speaker 1: advance some other criminal goal, in this case, quote-unquote, impeding
Speaker 1: law enforcement. And what makes this case particularly weak is
Speaker 1: that the impeding in this case amounts to extremely ordinary
Speaker 1: First Amendment protest. So not only are the majority, if
Speaker 1: not all, of the overt acts listed completely legal actions...
Speaker 1: they were actions taken in furtherance of legally protected First
Speaker 1: Amendment activity. Now, the indictment does list a few other
Speaker 1: charges against specific individuals. One person is charged with allegedly
Speaker 1: making threats based on statements made in Facebook and Instagram videos.
Speaker 1: Two people are charged with interstate stalking based on following
Speaker 1: vehicles leaving the Whipple Building across state lines into Wisconsin.
Speaker 1: One person is charged with allegedly assaulting a federal officer
Speaker 1: by knocking notes out of their hand and destruction of
Speaker 1: government property for kicking a vehicle. And lastly, another defendant
Speaker 1: is charged with assaulting a federal officer for allegedly brake-checking
Speaker 1: and side-swiping the officer's vehicle, causing a collision. No evidence
Speaker 1: for these alleged assaults has been presented thus far. But
Speaker 1: the conspiracy charge tying the 15 defendants together is the most, oh,
Speaker 1: so it's illegal to make plans with friends now, case
Speaker 1: I've ever seen. If it wasn't clear from the moment
Speaker 1: this indictment dropped, it only gets more and more clear
Speaker 1: over time that this case is not based on the
Speaker 1: strength of the evidence or threat to public safety, but
Speaker 1: rather political targeting. based on the beliefs held by the defendants,
Speaker 1: and the DOJ's ability to paint the defendants as antifa
Speaker 1: lunatics separate from the majority of peaceful, liberal anti-ice protesters,
Speaker 1: all while building a precedent to criminalize ordinary First Amendment
Speaker 1: protest activity, including ICE rapid response. To make it so
Speaker 1: that any protest against ICE is qualifies as interfering or
Speaker 1: impeding ICE from carrying out its immigration enforcement duties. And
Speaker 1: to create this precedent, the feds located a small group
Speaker 1: of Antifa, some outside agitators, that they believe a jury
Speaker 1: might be more likely to convict than the dozens and
Speaker 1: dozens of cases that have failed to move forward. In
Speaker 1: absence of any evidence of illegal violent acts, the DOJ
Speaker 1: must rely on radical sounding statements made by the defendants
Speaker 1: discussing their politics to turn a jury against them. And
Speaker 1: that's most of what the indictment contains. It's not detailing
Speaker 1: alleged acts of violence. It's detailing conversations about protesting. This
Speaker 1: indictment contains a lot of signal chat logs, as well
Speaker 1: as conversations from in-person meetings, which leads one to wonder,
Speaker 1: How exactly did DHS obtain that information? Well, a few
Speaker 1: weeks ago, about 30 documents were released as a part
Speaker 1: of a discovery motion filed by one of the defendants.
Speaker 1: And these documents provide maybe the closest look at how
Speaker 1: federal law enforcement under Trump, and specifically how DHS and
Speaker 1: Homeland Security Investigations are investigating and surveilling not just, quote unquote, Antifa,
Speaker 1: but anti-ICE protesters more broadly, community activist groups, left-wing organizations
Speaker 1: and non-profits, and even labor unions. The lawyer for the
Speaker 1: defendant in this case called this a, quote, unprecedented campaign
Speaker 1: by DHS to spy on Minnesotans. Before I get into
Speaker 1: some of these specific details, I want to read the
Speaker 1: opening overview by the defense lawyer, Kevin Ryok, discussing what
Speaker 1: Discovery has so far revealed. Quote, Undercover agents posing as
Speaker 1: protesters surveilled community meetings at churches, parks, libraries, schools, and
Speaker 1: union halls. These agents surreptitiously recorded dozens of conversations with
Speaker 1: ordinary people who were simply exercising their First Amendment right
Speaker 1: to protest ICE's lawless rampage in our state. The agents
Speaker 1: gathered information about Minnesotans from law enforcement databases and internet
Speaker 1: searches and created dossiers that are apparently now available agency-wide.
Speaker 1: Homeland Security Investigations' abuses did not stop there. HSI secretly
Speaker 1: obtained financial records for several national labor unions and social
Speaker 1: justice non-profits, all with zero criminal predicate to do so.
Speaker 1: The government's presentation to the grand jury reflected this broad
Speaker 1: and irrational investigation. With no evidence, the government alleged to
Speaker 1: the grand jury that the conspiracy in this case extends
Speaker 1: far beyond the defendants to include the AFL-CIO, the Minneapolis
Speaker 1: Federation of Educators, the Minnesota Association of Professional Employees, Monarcha,
Speaker 1: Veterans for Peace, and the Grease Pit Bicycle Repair Shop,
Speaker 1: among others. These wild conspiracy allegations are born from the
Speaker 1: fantasies of political retribution that animate the Trump administration. President
Speaker 1: Trump and senior administration officials routinely speak of the political
Speaker 1: left in dehumanizing terms, as deformed, scarred, and filled with ugliness,
Speaker 1: for example. The administration has criticized those sentiments into policies
Speaker 1: that encourage and authorize political prosecutions like this one, most
Speaker 1: notably National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, unquote. I'm not exaggerating
Speaker 1: that this motion filed by the defense is maybe the
Speaker 1: greatest criticism motion I've ever read. The understanding by the
Speaker 1: lawyer in this case of how the Trump administration is
Speaker 1: carrying out state repression against protesters is incredibly politically fluent.
Speaker 1: That last bit at the end discussing administration officials referring
Speaker 1: to the political left as deformed, scarred, or filled with
Speaker 1: ugliness relates to Stephen Miller's comments at Mark Rubio's left-wing
Speaker 1: terrorism summit last month that we discussed on executive disorder.
Speaker 1: And what he said during that conference was legitimately crazy.
Speaker 1: I didn't get to much of what he said in
Speaker 1: our previous episode because we were running short on time.
Speaker 1: But there's one quote I highlighted back then when I
Speaker 1: was doing research that I want to read now. Quote,
Speaker 1: the leftist looks at what is beautiful and what is
Speaker 1: good and what is natural and is filled with envy
Speaker 1: and hatred. The leftist looks at the perfect family with
Speaker 1: the perfect life and the perfect job and perfect kids
Speaker 1: that goes to church every Sunday. and it's filled with
Speaker 1: a feeling of inadequacy and jealousy, and they covet. And
Speaker 1: they turn those emotions ultimately into a desire to subjugate,
Speaker 1: to oppress, and to inflict pain and suffering. It's not
Speaker 1: a coincidence that when you look at any of these
Speaker 1: violent Antifa demonstrations, and you see any photograph of those
Speaker 1: who were assembled, to be blunt, not one of the
Speaker 1: people that is demonstrating looks like a normal person. They're
Speaker 1: all deformed in some way. in their appearance, in their dress,
Speaker 1: in their mannerisms. Why is that? Every one of them,
Speaker 1: through the course of their life and their decisions, has
Speaker 1: scarred their body and their appearance in many different ways,
Speaker 1: to the point in which their outer appearance becomes a
Speaker 1: manifestation of their inner hatred.
Speaker 3: Unquote.
Speaker 1: Super fascist stuff. Like, incredibly fascist. And the point by
Speaker 1: Kevin Ryok, the lawyer for one of the defendants, that
Speaker 1: the Trump administration has turned these fascistic sentiments into enforcement policy,
Speaker 1: like MSPM 7, is a really crucial point. Because these
Speaker 1: are not just personal sentiments held by Stephen Miller. These
Speaker 1: sentiments have been distilled into mandates to investigate and prosecute
Speaker 1: the political enemies of the Trump administration. Just four days
Speaker 1: after Border Patrol murdered Alex Preddy, Homeland Security Investigations opened
Speaker 1: a new investigation into anti-ICE protests in the Twin Cities
Speaker 1: called Operation Puppet Master. As in looking for the alleged
Speaker 1: puppet master orchestrating the spontaneous and community-led protests. Or I
Speaker 1: guess as in HSI is the puppet master infiltrating the
Speaker 1: protests with undercover agents puppeteered by DHS. Either way, DHS
Speaker 1: produced a report detailing the opening of Operation Puppet Master,
Speaker 1: and that report states, quote, This case is opened to
Speaker 1: document the integration of HSI undercover agents into groups, organizations,
Speaker 1: or other gatherings identified by intelligence information and other sources
Speaker 1: as potentially threatening to law enforcement personnel in the performance
Speaker 1: of their duties. The report by HSI Special Agent Jacob
Speaker 1: Marquis states, continues, quote, since November 28, 2026, I assume
Speaker 1: he means 2025.
Speaker 2: Great work, guys.
Speaker 1: Ongoing protests and incidents of civil unrest have occurred in
Speaker 1: public areas throughout Minneapolis, Minnesota. During these events, violent opportunists,
Speaker 1: or VOs, have exploited the protests as cover to attempt
Speaker 1: breaches of federal properties and perpetuated multiple assaults against federal
Speaker 1: officers tasked with protecting these facilities. Homeland Security Investigations of St.
Speaker 1: Paul has identified an organized network of conspirators operating through
Speaker 1: online and in-person who are providing material support to violent
Speaker 1: opportunists and agitators involved in impeding federal law enforcement, rioting,
Speaker 1: destruction of federal property, and assaults on federal agents and officers.
Speaker 1: This sentiment was also shared by U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen
Speaker 1: in that press conference.
Speaker 2: During Operation Metro Surge, Direct Action Minnesota infiltrated and exploited
Speaker 2: lawful protests to more efficiently carry out its unlawful direct actions.
Speaker 1: Despite the claims made by Rosen and in this HSI
Speaker 1: report of violent opportunists exploiting protests to perpetuate multiple assaults,
Speaker 1: In the defense's overview of these reports and documents, the
Speaker 1: defense lawyer notes that HSI does not actually identify any
Speaker 1: specific violent opportunists in this report, nor does it flag
Speaker 1: any specific incidents of rioting, destruction of property, or assaults
Speaker 1: on federal agents or officers. To quote the lawyer for
Speaker 1: the defense, the undercover surveillance initiated by Operation Puppet Master
Speaker 1: did not actually investigate or unearth any such instances, but
Speaker 1: instead encompassed all manner of privacy and constitutional violations against
Speaker 1: organizations and individuals who opposed ICE's activities in Minnesota, unquote.
Speaker 1: And in his press conference announcing the conspiracy charges, U.S.
Speaker 1: Attorney Daniel Rosen was asked multiple times whether any officers
Speaker 1: actually got hurt, and Rosen could not identify any instance
Speaker 1: of officer injury.
Speaker 2: We talked about coordinated attacks.
Speaker 1: What kind of injuries did officers sustain as part of
Speaker 1: these campaigns, if any?
Speaker 2: Can you elaborate on that? I can't elaborate on that today,
Speaker 2: and I don't believe I used the word attacks, but
Speaker 2: if I did, I stand by it.
Speaker 1: That really sums up this whole case for me. No,
Speaker 1: I can't provide any evidence to support the wild claims
Speaker 1: I'm making, and I don't think I used that word,
Speaker 1: but if I did, I stand by it. Incredible stuff.
Speaker 1: We will look into more of the Homeland Security Investigation
Speaker 1: case files after this at a break. Welcome back. The
Speaker 1: HSI report detailing the opening of Operation Puppet Master concludes
Speaker 1: by stating, quote, HSI St. Paul is actively conducting a
Speaker 1: thorough financial investigation to uncover the funding sources used by
Speaker 1: these groups and to detect any illicit transactions enabling further
Speaker 1: criminal acts. HSI St. Paul will use the results of
Speaker 1: this financial investigation to identify those responsible, disrupt ongoing and
Speaker 1: future unlawful activities, and pursue prosecution of the individuals involved.
Speaker 1: And two weeks after the launching of Operation Puppet Master,
Speaker 1: HSI opened another investigation called Project Whipple Shield, specifically focusing
Speaker 1: on the identification of potential funding sources, the organizational structure,
Speaker 1: and the, quote, predicate actions behind these campaigns. To quote
Speaker 1: that HSI report, quote, this investigation is focused on identifying
Speaker 1: and disrupting sophisticated, organized campaigns supporting and engaging in this
Speaker 1: behavior and to prevent such unlawful activities. Regarding this investigation,
Speaker 1: lawyer for the defense Kevin Ryok wrote, As with Operation
Speaker 1: Puppet Master, HSI's investigation in Project Whipple Shield extended far
Speaker 1: beyond any potential threat to law enforcement safety. It concluded,
Speaker 1: with no evidence but obvious political animus, that numerous Twin
Speaker 1: Cities unions and non-profit organizations were involved in a widespread
Speaker 1: conspiracy to violate 18 U.S.C. 111, assaulting, resisting, or impeding
Speaker 1: certain officers or employees. And it surveilled and surreptitiously gathered
Speaker 1: financial records generated by these organizations, despite the lack of
Speaker 1: any clear connection between those organizations and criminal conduct, unquote.
Speaker 1: At that press conference announcing the indictment, U.S. Attorney Daniel
Speaker 1: Rosen said that Direct Action Minnesota is actually, quote, comprised
Speaker 1: of members of subgroups like the Black Cat Workers Collective, unquote.
Speaker 1: But the alleged quote-unquote subgroups extend far beyond just Black
Speaker 1: Cat Workers Collective, as evidenced by a little diagram that
Speaker 1: was presented to grand jurors for this indictment. This diagram
Speaker 1: is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. In
Speaker 1: the alleges is connected to the 15 defendants. But surrounding
Speaker 1: the DAM logo is logos for 15 other organizations, all
Speaker 1: with arrows pointing towards Direct Action Minnesota and text reading
Speaker 1: council member, as if all of these organizations are sending
Speaker 1: council members to Direct Action Minnesota to plan or orchestrate
Speaker 1: the direct action's in response to Operation Metro Surge. This
Speaker 1: diagram that was presented as a slide to grand jurors
Speaker 1: is titled The Conspiracy. and the conspiring organizations are listed
Speaker 1: as Monarcha Rapid Response Line, which is one of the
Speaker 1: rapid response networks in the Twin Cities. The other organizations
Speaker 1: in this diagram, going clockwise, include Minnesota 5150, the organizers
Speaker 1: of the No Kings protests, Minnesota Ice Watch, Minnesota Association
Speaker 1: of Professional Employees, a labor union, Minneapolis Federation of Educators,
Speaker 1: Local 59, Left Jab, a self-defense group, The Grease Pit,
Speaker 1: a bike shop, Democratic Socialists of America, Black Cat Workers Collective, AFL-CIO, Workers'
Speaker 1: Solidarity Circle, Whipple Watch, Veterans for Peace, Socialist Alternative, Showing
Speaker 1: Up for Racial Justice, SCIU 26, Red Pine Revolutionary Collective,
Speaker 1: and Ray Rainbolt Memorial Gun Club. HSI agent Desmond Garcia
Speaker 1: testified to the grand jury regarding this slide, quote, This
Speaker 1: is kind of a breakdown, like I mentioned earlier, with
Speaker 1: members of DAM being associated with other organizations. Through the
Speaker 1: course of the investigation, this is just a snapshot of
Speaker 1: some of the other organizations that members are affiliated with.
Speaker 1: that kind of comprise and make up Direct Action Minnesota, unquote.
Speaker 1: This is one of the funniest things I've ever seen
Speaker 1: and provides really, really useful insight into how HSI is
Speaker 1: imagining the organizational structure of these protests, that all these
Speaker 1: organizations are sending, quote-unquote, council members to this more secretive group,
Speaker 1: Direct Action Minnesota, that orchestrates the most radical parts of
Speaker 1: the anti-ICE protests. Regarding this diagram slide, the lawyer for
Speaker 1: the defense wrote, If any individual was connected to both
Speaker 1: DAM and any of these entities, the government considers the
Speaker 1: entities to be conspiring. Fueled by visions of this vast
Speaker 1: and irrational conspiracy, HSI surreptitiously obtained financial records of labor
Speaker 1: unions and non-profit organizations as a part of a quote-unquote,
Speaker 1: financial investigation into, quote, domestic terrorist financing, unquote. And let's
Speaker 1: go over the financial probe aspect of this investigation. One
Speaker 1: of the reports uncovered through Discovery revealed that HSI secretly
Speaker 1: subpoenaed three years' worth of financial records from SEIU, one
Speaker 1: of the biggest labor unions in the country, largely focused
Speaker 1: on organizing the healthcare, public service, and service work sector.
Speaker 1: Last March, HSI agents served an administrative summons, or an
Speaker 1: administrative subpoena, to Fedwire to obtain wire transfers involving SCIU.
Speaker 1: The wire transfers that the Federal Reserve Bank of New
Speaker 1: York gave over to DHS range from January 1, 2023
Speaker 1: to March 19, 2026. To quote the HSI report, quote,
Speaker 1: Beginning in December, HSI St. Paul began a multifaceted approach
Speaker 1: to identify and investigate individuals engaged in acts of violence,
Speaker 1: destruction of federal property, intimidation of federal officers and employees,
Speaker 1: and attempts to impede federal operations. Through this investigation, HSI St.
Speaker 1: Paul has identified a network of individuals operating online and
Speaker 1: in person who are engaged in this behavior by either
Speaker 1: directly participating or by providing support through fundraising, planning, and organization.
Speaker 1: The following report of investigation provides preliminary cursory details related
Speaker 1: to wire transfers from various financial institutions to and from
Speaker 1: Service Employees International Union, main financial institution, the U.S. Bank
Speaker 1: of Minneapolis, Minnesota, unquote. And what did this investigation find? Well,
Speaker 1: a quote-unquote preliminary analysis of the wire transfers, quote, revealed
Speaker 1: that the SEIU National Union has numerous wire transactions to
Speaker 1: and from SEIU local unions for various types of debits
Speaker 1: and credits to include annuity payments, strike payments, strike supplies, investments,
Speaker 1: union member dues, retiree dues, medical expenses, and pension fund expenses.
Speaker 1: So they found nothing. They just looked through three years
Speaker 1: of financial records from SEIU and only found regular transactions
Speaker 1: that a union would have. They found absolutely nothing. And
Speaker 1: this report ends with this incredible sentence, quote, this financial
Speaker 1: investigation involving protest domestic terrorist financing continues.
Speaker 3: Sure, dude.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'm sure it's going to continue. I'm sure it's
Speaker 1: going to continue to find nothing. Because in the 95-page
Speaker 1: indictment against these 15 defendants, One of the frequently recurring
Speaker 1: topics in the overt acts in furtherance of the conspiracy
Speaker 1: is discussing how they don't have any money, how they're
Speaker 1: constantly trying to fundraise to help continue the anti-ICE protests.
Speaker 1: The indictment outlines them consistently struggling to pull together $ 5, 000.
Speaker 1: But yeah, sure, let me make a few calls to
Speaker 1: the SCIU real quick. I'm sure they'll just wire transfer
Speaker 1: over the money. And the other thing is that this
Speaker 1: three-year time span of the financial probe stretches way longer
Speaker 1: than Operation Metro Surge and the protests surrounding ICE activists
Speaker 1: in the Twin Cities. Because what's actually going on here,
Speaker 1: and to the Fed's own admission, is that they're just
Speaker 1: enacting NSPM 7, using whatever pretext they can concoct to
Speaker 1: dig through the finances of entities and organizations alike. that
Speaker 1: they view as political enemies. And it wasn't just SEIU.
Speaker 1: HSI also obtained three years worth of bank records for
Speaker 1: the Communication Workers of America, including donations and PAC spending.
Speaker 1: The CWA union represents thousands of journalists and print and
Speaker 1: broadcast news workers in the US and Canada. And as
Speaker 1: a part of this financial probe, HSI obtained records for
Speaker 1: one of the Canadian branches of this union, the International
Speaker 1: Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers, with the administrative summons
Speaker 1: requesting information from the Bank of Montreal. This very same
Speaker 1: summons also demanded three years worth of financial records from
Speaker 1: the environmental activist organization Sunrise Movement and the Sunrise Movement
Speaker 1: Educational Fund. And as we will discuss, HSI was also
Speaker 1: actively surveilling Sunrise meetings in Minnesota. Now, HSI also subpoenaed
Speaker 1: financial records from at least one other entity that we
Speaker 1: know of, a local Minneapolis activist organization called Voices for
Speaker 1: Racial Justice, But rather than bank records and wire transfers,
Speaker 1: HSI went after PayPal and Venmo transactions. Voices for Racial
Speaker 1: Justice was founded in 1993 and describes itself as the
Speaker 1: longest-running racial justice organizing training organization in the state of Minnesota.
Speaker 1: The DHS investigative report regarding the subpoena into the organization
Speaker 1: says that the website for Voices of Racial Justice, quote,
Speaker 1: boasts several articles on ICE Out and or Truth, Freedom,
Speaker 1: and Ice Out of Minnesota. Their website also provides links
Speaker 1: to Defend the 612, Minneapolis St. Paul Whistles, and Monarcha
Speaker 1: Rapid Response for upcoming trainings, unquote. That's basically the entire
Speaker 1: justification DHS gives for probing into the donations and Venmo
Speaker 1: and PayPal records for this racial justice organization, that their
Speaker 1: website hosts links to other anti-ice organizations. Defense attorney Kevin
Speaker 1: Ryok wrote, quote, this broad coalition of financial records of
Speaker 1: labor and social justice advocacy organizations done in secret and
Speaker 1: with no articulable criminal predicate violates both the First Amendment
Speaker 1: and these organizations' right to financial privacy. It also reflects
Speaker 1: a sinister turn in our democracy when the party in
Speaker 1: power feels no compunction about peering into the private finances
Speaker 1: of its political opponents, collecting that information and and storing
Speaker 1: it away for further use. The lawyer also notes, quote,
Speaker 1: among other problems, the use of the administrative summons seems
Speaker 1: to violate the Right to Financial Privacy Act, which requires
Speaker 1: law enforcement to provide notice to the account holder if
Speaker 1: they are trying to obtain bank records via administrative subpoena. Here,
Speaker 1: not only did DHS hide these inquiries from the account holders,
Speaker 1: it told responding financial institutions, quote, you are requested not
Speaker 1: to disclose the existence of this summons for an indefinite
Speaker 1: period of time. Any such disclosure will impede the investigation
Speaker 1: and thereby interfere with the enforcement of federal law, unquote.
Speaker 1: Though the federal government would likely argue that HSI's use
Speaker 1: of the administrative subpoenas without notice would fall under some
Speaker 1: of the exceptions within the Right to Financial Privacy Act.
Speaker 1: Most reporting I've seen on this batch of discovery has
Speaker 1: focused on the financial probing of unions and activist organizations.
Speaker 1: And Yeah, that is a big deal. That is very
Speaker 1: serious and deserves a lot of focus. But most of
Speaker 1: the investigative reports released as a part of Discovery pertain
Speaker 1: to HSI undercover operations, surveillance and infiltration of anti-ice organizing
Speaker 1: in the Twin Cities. And there is a lot of
Speaker 1: interesting information in there that explains why the 90-something page
Speaker 1: indictment is like that, why it has transcriptions of so
Speaker 1: many regular in-person conversations, and text logs from Signal. To
Speaker 1: quote defense lawyer Kevin Ryok, undercover HSI agents posing as
Speaker 1: protesters or activists surveilled community meetings at church parks, libraries,
Speaker 1: union halls, schools, and restaurants. Undercover agents secretly made audio
Speaker 1: and video recordings of those meetings. And now I want
Speaker 1: to quote from one of the HSI reports regarding their
Speaker 1: use of undercovers. Quote, Prior to the initiation of Operation
Speaker 1: Puppet Master, HSI deployed an undercover agent to participate in
Speaker 1: both virtual and in-person meetings within the Twin Cities area.
Speaker 1: The objective of these activities was to gather intelligence regarding
Speaker 1: any organized networks of conspirators operating online and in person
Speaker 1: who may be providing material support to violent opportunists and
Speaker 1: individuals engaged in impeding federal law enforcement, rioting, destruction of
Speaker 1: federal property, and assaults on federal agents and officers, unquote.
Speaker 1: So before Operation Puppet Master even started in January, the
Speaker 1: month prior, HSI already had an undercover digging into the
Speaker 1: anti-ice protests. In reports, this undercover is identified as 9843,
Speaker 1: and he started out by attending a virtual ice watch
Speaker 1: training on December 3rd, put on by a group called
Speaker 1: States at the Core and a Chicago-based org called Protect
Speaker 1: Rogers Park. A few days later, the agent quote-unquote acting
Speaker 1: in an undercover capacity attended a publicly advertised in-person legal
Speaker 1: observer training in Richfield, Minnesota. During the training, the agent
Speaker 1: joined a rapid response network sponsored by a Minneapolis-based community
Speaker 1: defense group called Monarcha via a QR code. On December 13th,
Speaker 1: the undercover attended a Sunrise Movement action training called How
Speaker 1: to Stop ICE and Build the Revolution, at a Universalist
Speaker 1: church in Minneapolis. After this meeting, the undercover was added
Speaker 1: to the group's announcement chat and started messaging one of
Speaker 1: the organizers about how people are verifying which hotels ICE
Speaker 1: agents were staying at. A few days later, the undercover
Speaker 1: reviewed a website with info, toolkits, and signal links for
Speaker 1: ICE rapid response called Defend612. com. 612 is the Minneapolis area code.
Speaker 1: On December 22nd, the undercover participated in a sunrise Zoom
Speaker 1: meeting about a then-upcoming protest in front of the Hampton
Speaker 1: Inn housing ICE agents. Per the investigative report detailing undercover
Speaker 1: operations prior to the creation of Operation Puppet Master, during
Speaker 1: this sunrise Zoom meeting, the undercover agent learned that there were, quote,
Speaker 1: multiple signal chats dedicated to the hotel scouting and license
Speaker 1: plate gathering. The gathering is a collaborative effort with quote-unquote
Speaker 1: Whipple Watch, the known agitator group stationed outside the Whipple building.
Speaker 1: HSI undercover agent 9843 was added by the team leader
Speaker 1: for the quote-unquote action team to this signal chat group, unquote.
Speaker 1: So beyond joining public signal chats, it appears the main
Speaker 1: way this undercover was able to worm his way into
Speaker 1: more private chats regarding Whipple Watch was through attending Sunrise
Speaker 1: Movement meetings. In the motion outlining this batch of discovery,
Speaker 1: the lawyer for the defense noted, quote, The main example
Speaker 1: of this in these documents is is another Sunrise Movement
Speaker 1: meeting from late January, titled Resistance Skills Training, held at
Speaker 1: the Minneapolis Public Library. Two undercovers attended this training, and
Speaker 1: the investigative report details about 25 people in quote-unquote breakout
Speaker 1: sessions focused on recruiting, action, and de-escalation. The report notes
Speaker 1: that Sunrise recommends using quote, police liaisons and protest safety marshals.
Speaker 1: the quote-unquote action section, discussed sit-ins and the protests outside hotels,
Speaker 1: with HSI noting in the report, quote, it was made
Speaker 1: clear that the Sunrise Movement organization focused on quote-unquote peaceful protests.
Speaker 1: Regardless of that, one of the undercovers at this meeting
Speaker 1: quote-unquote privately informed someone that he works in construction and
Speaker 1: could quote, build items that might assist other groups with
Speaker 1: more quote-unquote direct action protests, unquote. And the undercover also
Speaker 1: told this person at the meeting that going to jail
Speaker 1: quote-unquote did not bother him. So two undercovers attended this
Speaker 1: Sunrise Movement meeting discussing peaceful protests and noted that in
Speaker 1: the report, but still tried to talk to attendees about
Speaker 1: quote-unquote building items. to assist in direct action protests and
Speaker 1: that they're okay with going to jail because of it.
Speaker 1: We'll talk more about how undercover HSI agents began their
Speaker 1: infiltration after this ad break. Welcome back. The main undercover
Speaker 1: HSI agent who started to infiltrate the protests in December
Speaker 1: of 2025, who's identified in reports as undercover 9843, also
Speaker 1: operated a signal account with the screen name Peanut Butter Jelly.
Speaker 1: And according to the defense, this undercover, quote, routinely exchanged
Speaker 1: signal messages with people regarding purely First Amendment protected conduct,
Speaker 1: messaging participants in the art money comms club signal chat
Speaker 1: and stating, quote, also the interested in the financial organizing piece.
Speaker 1: I like numbers and data and marrying that together with propaganda.
Speaker 1: So would love to work on both sides of these groups. Unquote. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm sure you're interested in the financial organizing piece. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I bet. I like numbers and data. Incredible. The interested
Speaker 1: in the financial organizing piece. Also, as a part of Discovery,
Speaker 1: we've learned that the undercover discussed fundraising messaging strategies and
Speaker 1: offered to draft fundraising language for Twin Cities Direct Action
Speaker 1: and design a protest flyer. One message with the undercover
Speaker 1: using the screen name Peanut Butter Jelly reads, I'm sure
Speaker 1: you're swamped with the speaking tour, but do you have
Speaker 1: a suggestion for a donation platform? I believe Open Collective
Speaker 1: and the idea of asking our own banks was discussed, unquote.
Speaker 1: According to the defense, these new discovery documents also detail
Speaker 1: how Undercover's, quote, routinely surveilled individuals engaged solely in First
Speaker 1: Amendment-protected activity, including the Whipple Watch Group that engaged in
Speaker 1: peaceful observation of ICE vehicle activity in and out of
Speaker 1: the Whipple building. conduct that both Judge Mendez and Chief
Speaker 1: Judge Schiltz have confirmed is not unlawful, unquote. One of
Speaker 1: the DHS investigative reports details how agents captured the license
Speaker 1: plate information of anti-ice protesters attending a Twin Cities Direct
Speaker 1: Action quote-unquote art club meeting at the Prince of Peace
Speaker 1: Lutheran Church. In the report, the undercover who infiltrated this meeting, quote,
Speaker 1: described the meeting as democratic in nature in the sense
Speaker 1: that everyone talked over each other, unquote. The undercover also
Speaker 1: noted how most of the meeting discussed fundraising and how
Speaker 1: to make social media agitprop. But while he was attending
Speaker 1: this meeting, other HSI agents documented the license plates of attendees.
Speaker 1: According to the defense, quote, Agents then used this information
Speaker 1: to obtain the names of the attendees, searched social media
Speaker 1: for pictures of these individuals, and compiled an intel workup
Speaker 1: that included names, photos, addresses, personal information, including family and
Speaker 1: employment information, and vehicle registration information for each meeting attendee.
Speaker 1: None of these individuals did anything other than engage in
Speaker 1: protected First Amendment speech in a church meeting room. Yet,
Speaker 1: now their personal information is memorialized in a DHS dossier, unquote.
Speaker 1: The best idea why HSI decided to zero in on
Speaker 1: the group of individuals allegedly associated with Direct Action Minnesota,
Speaker 1: or formerly called Twin Cities Direct Action, relates to a
Speaker 1: meeting held in early January. If you recall, HSI undercover
Speaker 1: 9843 was added to the Whipple Watch signal chat after
Speaker 1: attending a few Sunrise Movement meetings. And according to investigative reports,
Speaker 1: on January 10th, an undercover agent received a flyer in
Speaker 1: the Whipple Watch chat for an upcoming emergency meeting on
Speaker 1: the 11th. Remember, this was three days after the killing
Speaker 1: of Renee Good. The undercover got permission to attend this
Speaker 1: emergency meeting and was quote-unquote vouched by one of the defendants,
Speaker 1: Isaac Sand, identified in chats as Ike. This emergency meeting
Speaker 1: was to share plans of an upcoming protest on July 23rd.
Speaker 1: And the HSI report claims that this meeting is where
Speaker 1: Twin Cities Direct Action emerged from, as that was the
Speaker 1: name of the signal chat created at the end of
Speaker 1: this meeting, and the Twin Cities Direct Action logo was
Speaker 1: first used on a flyer for this upcoming protest. On
Speaker 1: January 19th, the undercover surveilled and attended a follow-up meeting
Speaker 1: at a local restaurant in North Minneapolis, hosted by SEIU
Speaker 1: 26 and Socialist Alternative, to plan this action on the 23rd,
Speaker 1: which was then identified as a general strike. The HSI
Speaker 1: report describes this meeting as a, quote, general discussion on
Speaker 1: the upcoming Walk Out on Ice event being held on
Speaker 1: January 23rd. And as usual, this report doesn't actually allude
Speaker 1: to anything illegal being discussed in this meeting. And this
Speaker 1: strike and march action later took place on January 23rd
Speaker 1: and was attended by tens of thousands of people. Planning
Speaker 1: such an action is an ordinary protected First Amendment act.
Speaker 1: Around this point, and especially following the killing of Alex Preddy,
Speaker 1: DHS started really ramping up the surveillance and infiltration of
Speaker 1: anti-ICE protests in the Twin Cities. They started using multiple
Speaker 1: undercover agents, not just 9843, and began surveilling and trying
Speaker 1: to infiltrate many more types of protest beyond what was
Speaker 1: organized by Twin Cities Direct Action. Two HSI reports detail
Speaker 1: surveillance of individuals and groups attending protests the No Kings protests,
Speaker 1: and an anti-war protest last March. The report on the
Speaker 1: Stop the War in Iran protest held on March 7th
Speaker 1: specifically mentions 5150, Veterans for Peace, Sunrise, and PSL. To
Speaker 1: quote the report, Undercover 5022 and Undercover 137 did not
Speaker 1: have extended interactions with any members of the crowd. Many
Speaker 1: people were also not identifiable slash recognizable due to wearing
Speaker 1: face coverings. Undercover 5022 observed that during the event, several
Speaker 1: people appeared to be conducting event overwatch or quote-unquote marshalling.
Speaker 1: They were wearing reflective vests, were wearing red hats, and
Speaker 1: carried radios. They were located at the edges of the crowd.
Speaker 1: Investigative note, based on training and experience, Undercover 5022 is
Speaker 1: aware that organizations involved in the activities that are subject
Speaker 1: of this investigation, utilize tactics including placing quote-unquote marshals to
Speaker 1: service lookouts and conduct internal communications and security at events, unquote.
Speaker 1: While testifying to the grand jury, Agent Garcia claimed that
Speaker 1: every single individual being investigated has criminal predicate. Quote, one
Speaker 1: of the things that is abundantly clear, not only in guidance,
Speaker 1: but it's just principles as far as this investigation is,
Speaker 1: no one is ever investigated or looked at or even
Speaker 1: researched on for First Amendment protected activities. Every single individual
Speaker 1: that we have investigated, there is criminal predicate to why
Speaker 1: we are investigating them. Either statements that they have made
Speaker 1: that are criminal to their actual participation in overt criminal acts, unquote.
Speaker 1: Now to quote the lawyer for the defense, of course,
Speaker 1: as the above examples demonstrate, HSI was obtaining wide swaths
Speaker 1: of financial data from labor unions and non-profits with zero
Speaker 1: quote-unquote criminal predicate. Undercover agents captured dozens of First Amendment
Speaker 1: protected conversations on surreptitious recordings, many of which did not
Speaker 1: involve any of the defendants or unindicted co-conspirators in this case.
Speaker 1: Agent Garcia's statement is simply not true, unquote. And yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know how you can think after considering all
Speaker 1: the examples I've just read that HSI had criminal predicate
Speaker 1: for every single organization or person that was under investigation
Speaker 1: or surveillance. That's just a lie. Because if they had
Speaker 1: criminal predicate, they would be charged. There would be charges
Speaker 1: against more people. There could be charges against some of
Speaker 1: those other 15 conspiring organizations in that diagram shown to
Speaker 1: the grand jury. Oh, and by the way, the DOJ
Speaker 1: lawyer who convened this grand jury, Deputy Attorney General Brian Lynch,
Speaker 1: was also a January 6th insurrectionist who entered a restricted
Speaker 1: zone alongside other rioters. And as this indictment was being
Speaker 1: put together, the government forced the court to vacate the
Speaker 1: convictions against Oath Keepers involved in January 6th. This grand
Speaker 1: jury was literally put together by a January 6th insurrectionist
Speaker 1: to indict protesters for conspiracy to impede. At the exact
Speaker 1: same time, the federal government was vacating convictions of other
Speaker 1: January 6th insurrectionists. The last thing I want to note
Speaker 1: about this batch of discovery is how it also details
Speaker 1: instances of counter surveillance. In one report, a self-described community
Speaker 1: member walks up to a government vehicle and containing HSI
Speaker 1: agents conducting surveillance, also staged to support an undercover infiltrating
Speaker 1: an event, and the community member asks the agents inside
Speaker 1: if they are ICE. They say no and point to
Speaker 1: a safety vest and a helmet in the vehicle. The
Speaker 1: community member then responds by saying okay, and then tells
Speaker 1: them that he'll have to run the vehicle's plates to check.
Speaker 1: DHS investigative reports also detail that people at meetings warning
Speaker 1: that ICE could be trying to infiltrate those very meetings
Speaker 1: and telling all the attendees to not say anything that
Speaker 1: they wouldn't say directly to an ICE agent, which is
Speaker 1: really good advice when that meeting is being attended by
Speaker 1: an ICE agent. And one of the funnier investigative notes
Speaker 1: in this batch of discovery relates to an undercover's infiltration
Speaker 1: of a self-defense workshop. Quote, Due to the physicality of
Speaker 1: the event, Undercover 5022's concealed body-worn audio recorder erroneously fell
Speaker 1: to the floor of the gymnasium near the end of
Speaker 1: the training. The undercover briefly left the gymnasium, realized she
Speaker 1: no longer had the device, and returned to the gymnasium
Speaker 1: to retrieve the device from the floor. During these approximately
Speaker 1: three minutes, the undercover was not present in the gymnasium. So...
Speaker 1: While this batch of discovery has given us a closer
Speaker 1: look at the extent of the surveillance of anti-ice protests
Speaker 1: and HSI's method of investigation, the government did not hand
Speaker 1: over everything. It was supposed to as a part of discovery.
Speaker 1: And the lawyers are requesting more documents. This batch of
Speaker 1: discovery is missing, among other things, quote, special reports of
Speaker 1: investigation that the government has admitted withholding, claiming that they're
Speaker 1: unrelated to this investigation, even though they were created and
Speaker 1: filed within it. The disclosures admit to any investigative reports
Speaker 1: that document HSI's domestic surveillance, but were placed in other
Speaker 1: case files. They admit documents and communications related to the
Speaker 1: initiation and supervision of HSI's undercover operations, and they admit
Speaker 1: downloads of the undercover phones and undercover laptops used by
Speaker 1: undercover agents in this case to communicate with the defendants
Speaker 1: and others, unquote. And those documents are useful not just
Speaker 1: to us, so we know how these investigations are being
Speaker 1: carried out, but also for the defense, because reports of
Speaker 1: government surveillance of protesters and activists during Metro's surge are
Speaker 1: relevant to the defendant's motion for, quote, selective prosecution and
Speaker 1: outrageous government conduct, as they constitute additional evidence of DHS
Speaker 1: targeting individuals based on their political beliefs and First Amendment-protected conduct, unquote.
Speaker 1: So yeah, that is my not-so-brief overview of this batch
Speaker 1: of discovery reports. I'll have links to the court documents
Speaker 1: below if you want to take a look yourself. And
Speaker 1: hopefully we'll get even more discovery in these next few months.
Speaker 1: See you on the other side.
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