A major scandal emerged on Thursday as newly disclosed Department of Homeland Security documents exposed a massive spying campaign against ordinary Minnesotans who had gathered to resist the violent surge of federal immigration agents into their communities this winter.
So why has the news media coverage been so scant and underplayed? Why isn’t everyone more outraged?
This ought to have resulted in screaming headlines all over the place. But instead, after the news broke in a New York Times article, the Associated Press filed a short report and many news organizations ignored it completely. The cable networks were almost entirely silent. Social media reaction was muted. I have seen no follow-up stories.
This is a hugely significant story. It’s highly reminiscent of the COINTELPRO scandal of the early 1970s, which revealed domestic surveillance of groups the government considered subversive, and which led to the Church Committee and the creation of new oversight mechanisms.
And adding to the outrage factor is that this is how DHS responded to the slaying of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal agents, instead of investigating the perpetrators.
The new documents reveal that DHS’s “Operation Puppet Master” — which sent undercover agents to infiltrate citizen groups engaged in First Amendment-protected speech in churches, schools and parks — was ostensibly aimed at “an organized network of conspirators operating through online and in person who are providing material support to violent opportunists and agitators.”
But the allegations by DHS and the Department of Justice were groundless and paranoid. Consider how in one diagram presented to a grand jury illustrating “The Conspiracy,” DOJ prosecutors listed groups including the AFL-CIO, a Service Employees Union local, the Minnesota chapter of 50501, and a bike shop called the Grease Pit.
And for all that effort, the investigation’s grand conclusion was trumped-up charges against a total of 15 people, based mostly on traditional community organizing tactics around blockades and the tracking of ICE agents. The most serious allegation involved a few dents in an ICE vehicle.
The previously secret DHS documents were made public by Kevin Reich, the attorney for the lead defendant in the case, who submitted them as exhibits supporting his motion for further discovery.
Reich described an “unprecedented campaign by DHS to spy on Minnesotans” based on a “broad and irrational investigation” that reflected “wild conspiracy allegations” that were “born from the fantasies of political retribution that animate the Trump Administration.”
In addition to the undercover surveillance, which included audio and video recordings, DHS used administrative subpoenas to secretly obtain extensive financial records from labor unions and social justice non-profits that were never accused of any crimes.
One possible reason for the lackluster coverage, I have to admit, is that the non-governmental organizations that have historically fought against unjustified domestic surveillance, have been oddly quiet. I don’t understand that, either.
The ACLU’s muscular National Security Project, for instance, has historically exposed and decried DHS’s targeting of peaceful political groups. I’ve seen nothing from them. Same with the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), the Brennan Center, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and so on.
Jake Laperruque, a surveillance expert at the Center for Democracy & Technology posted this on Bluesky, but it’s not enough:
A jaw-dropping report of weaponized political surveillance. The government grabbed years of sensitive records from major progressive groups and unions, baselessly claiming they were needed to address threats of “domestic terrorism” It’s a near perfect mirror of the J Edgar Hoover COINTELPRO abuse
A number of Minnesota-based civil society groups responded with a statement decrying the “political repression” aimed at groups that “were engaged in the broad, peaceful civic response that brought hundreds of thousands of us together to protect our neighbors and our constitutional rights.”
Meanwhile, Democratic leaders, with two exceptions that I know of, haven’t said a peep. Senator Chris Van Hollen wrote on Bluesky:
These are the actions of an authoritarian state. Instead of investigating the agent who killed Alex Pretti, Trump’s DHS conducted sweeping surveillance of Minnesota organizations that were peacefully standing up to this Administration’s lawlessness. Despicable.
Late-night CNN host Laura Coates briefly raised the issue with Peggy Flanagan, the newly-minted Democratic nominee for the Minnesota senate seat. Flanagan responded:
You know, four days after Alex Pretti was killed, this investigation began. I think they’re calling it, what? Operation Puppet Master, which is just — you know, the name is chilling in itself. But, you know, the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti need to be investigated. And their priority was not finding out what happened to these two individuals who lost their lives, but their priority was, you know, to go after these groups who are simply engaging in, you know, expressing their First Amendment rights. This is chilling. And we should all be incredibly concerned, again, that Donald Trump’s ICE, the DOJ that has now been empowered to just simply go after citizens and organizations who disagree with the president — that’s authoritarianism. And we all have to, like, open our eyes to what is happening right in front of us.
“We have to speak out,” Flanagan concluded. “And it’s, frankly, one of the reasons why I am running, to push back and hold these folks accountable.”
I should also call attention to the coverage in progressive media, which did capture some of the outrage factor.
Democracy Docket stated bluntly that “Details of the surveillance operation raise significant civil rights concerns.” And they uncovered this extraordinary detail:
One of HSI’s internal documents indicates an agent recorded audio while attending a beginner boxing session hosted by an “anti-racist, queer friendly” martial arts group in the gym area of the University Baptist Church in Minneapolis on May 28 — over 100 days after Operation Metro Surge concluded.
“Due to the physicality of the event, [the agent’s] concealed body-worn audio recorder erroneously fell to the floor of the gymnasium near the end of the training,” the report reads.
Talking Points Memo called attention to the startling fact that “Per the filing, Joint Task Force Vanguard co-chief Brian W. Lynch presented the case to the grand jury. TPM first reported that Lynch was co-running the initiative; TPM later broke the news that he had marched on the Capitol on Jan. 6.”
There is so much more to report here, to dig into, and to analyze. But I worry that this story will just vanish in the daily maelstrom of scandals under this administration.
This was a major step into our descent into a police state. Leaving it unexamined will let it become the new normal.