Full story
Operation Puppet Master
Federal agents launched a sweeping undercover surveillance operation earlier this year in Minneapolis targeting progressive organizations and labor unions protesting an immigration crackdown, according to court documents filed Thursday.
“The program, dubbed Operation Puppet Master, was aimed at what officials called a network of conspirators helping “violent opportunists and agitators.””
The program, dubbed Operation Puppet Master, was aimed at what officials called a network of conspirators helping “violent opportunists and agitators.”
The documents were filed in a case involving 15 people charged by federal prosecutors in June with impeding the crackdown, accusing them of conspiring against the federal government through actions including “throwing ice chunks to setting up blockades.”
A defense lawyer, Kevin Riach, said Puppet Master and a later operation called Project Whipple Shield were a “broad and irrational investigation” driven by politics and not criminal conduct.
The court filings describe Department of Homeland Security officers infiltrating meetings in churches, schools and parks that were often discussions of constitutionally protected protests, while a DHS statement said Homeland Security Investigations doesn’t comment on the existence or status of on-going investigations or investigative methods.
Infiltration and backlash
The documents describe an undercover officer identified as “UCA 9833” listening at a Jan. 31 meeting in a Minneapolis library as supporters of the Sunrise Movement discussed sit-ins, de-escalation tactics and “having a police liaison and safety marshal present during events.”
Ahilan Arulanantham, a professor at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law, said the material could deter people from expressing their beliefs, warning, “It’s that fear of that creeping police state.”
Groups that the government investigated were furious at the news, and CWA President Claude Cummings Jr. said, “Our union has become the latest target of a corrupt administration that weaponizes the legal process against law-abiding Americans exercising our Constitutional rights.”
A coalition of Minneapolis-area civil society groups defended the protests and criticized the investigations, with Unidos MN saying the government was “lashing out desperately in hopes of intimidating people and organizations that have shown the power of communities acting together,” according to the Associated Press reporting.
Minnesota U.S. Attorney Daniel N. Rosen characterized the 15 as part of two groups he called “antifa,” while defense attorney Riach said at the time that his client, Isaac Sant, had no affiliation with antifa, which he called “a boogeyman invented by the far-right.”
What’s at stake next
The court filings say the government obtained years of certain financial records for groups ranging from the Sunrise Movement to major unions, including the Service Employees International Union and the Communications Workers of America.
“DHS deployed about 3,000 federal officers to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area”
A DHS request to FedWire warned, “You are requested not to disclose the existence of this summons for an indefinite period of time,” as the documents described agents secretly infiltrating meetings, monitoring activist chat groups and using license plate numbers to compile names of people who attended gatherings.
The Associated Press reporting also says DHS deployed about 3,000 federal officers to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area for roughly three months starting late last year in what the department called its “ largest immigration enforcement operation ever.”
The operation led to thousands of arrests, angry mass protests and the fatal shootings of two U.S. citizens, and the case involving the 15 people charged in June is tied to impeding the crackdown.
In the case, defense attorney Kevin Riach argued the operations were a “broad and irrational investigation” driven by politics and not criminal conduct, while the department said Homeland Security Investigations doesn’t comment on the existence or status of on-going investigations or investigative methods.
