Trump DOJ Seeks Names of Social Media Users Critical of ICE

AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin

The Department of Justice is pursuing the names of social media users that critisized President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement crackdowns.

U.S. Attorney and Trump ally Jeanine Pirro subpoenaed Reddit and X for the names, addresses, and bank information of at least two users who expressed opposition to ICE actions. Records from the users’ attorneys, shared with Bloomberg, show that the request is part of a criminal investigation, though the users were not informed of any specific crimes that are the focus of the DOJ’s efforts. The users were not alerted directly by the DOJ, but rather learned of the probe from the social media companies.

“Their lawyers believe the investigations could relate to allegations of revealing a federal officer’s location data or other types of perceived threats, but dispute that their clients committed crimes,” Bloomberg’s report read. “Even if no charges ultimately are filed, the attorneys contended in interviews that rooting out identities of dissenters is at the very least an intimidation tactic.”

The users have asked the subpoenas to be thrown out, a request that a federal judge is currently considering. The Department of Justice declined to comment on all aspects of the investigation. Neither DHS nor X responded to a request for comment.

“Reddit operates on the fundamental belief that privacy is a right, and we have a proven track record of vigorously defending our users’ anonymity,” a Reddit spokesperson said in a statement. “We review every government inquiry for legal sufficiency and routinely object to requests that are overbroad or threaten civil rights.”

Lauren Regan, an attorney representing one user who made critical Reddit posts about ICE, first reported in April, said that the move was made in “bad faith” in an effort to identify her client.

“They started with an administrative summons, which does not indicate a criminal investigation, and then progressed to the grand jury subpoena, which does,” she said, claiming the DOJ’s action “is further proof that this is a bad faith attempt to unmask the user.”

The pattern of first issuing an administrative summons, before withdrawing it and issuing a grand jury subpoena was true for both users, according to their lawyers and documents reviewed by Bloomberg, and the subpoenas themselves were signed by the same prosecutor from the Washington U.S. attorney’s office.

“They direct the companies to deliver records to an ICE office,” the report reads. “One had a cover letter stating that the request was ‘pursuant to a criminal investigation being conducted by the United States Attorney’s Office.’ It is unclear if there are possible subpoenas to other social media companies to identify ICE critics and if they followed the same path.”

Attorneys for both users have moved to unseal the pending cases.

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