Newly filed court documents detail a federal intelligence operation that examined financial and organizational links among left-leaning groups during opposition to immigration enforcement in Minnesota, while defense attorneys contend the investigation swept too broadly into constitutionally protected political activity.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom
New court filings are shedding light on a Department of Justice intelligence-gathering effort that examined whether political organizations, unions and activist groups helped finance or support efforts to obstruct federal immigration enforcement in Minnesota during unrest earlier this year.
The initiative, known as “Operation Puppet Master,” scrutinized organizations investigators suspected of providing assistance or funding to people federal authorities described as “violent opportunists and agitators,” according to documents reported Thursday.
The investigation has become the subject of sharply conflicting interpretations. Federal prosecutors point to the subsequent indictment of 15 defendants accused of crimes ranging from assaulting federal officers to interstate stalking and threats, while civil-liberties advocates and defense attorneys argue the government cast an excessively broad surveillance net over lawful political organizations and protest activity.
ABC News reported on the newly disclosed documents, including criticism portraying the operation as evidence of a “creeping police state.”
The federal inquiry began during a contentious period of immigration enforcement in Minneapolis, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Border Patrol personnel had been deployed as part of an effort to arrest illegal immigrants with criminal records.
According to The New York Times, Operation Puppet Master was launched four days after Border Patrol agents shot and killed 37-year-old government nurse Alex Pretti while he was allegedly interfering with an arrest.
The resulting investigation did not focus on the agents involved in Pretti’s death. Instead, federal authorities examined organizations they believed could have supported the unrest surrounding the immigration operation.
“The target was not the Border Patrol agents who had killed Mr. Pretti, a 37-year-old government nurse, in late January,” the Times reported. “Instead, it was several left-leaning political organizations — labor unions, a climate change group, socialist collectives — that investigators believed had provided help and money to what they described as the ‘violent opportunists and agitators’ on the street, according to newly released government documents.
“In one instance, officials used administrative subpoenas to obtain more than three years of financial records from the Sunrise Movement, an environmental action group, and a labor union, the Communications Workers of America. That time frame went well beyond the civil unrest in Minnesota, which was prompted by the deployment of thousands of immigration agents to the state during the winter.”
The documents emerged in the federal prosecution of 15 people associated with Direct Action Minnesota, or DAMN.
The Justice Department announced the charges earlier this year, alleging offenses including “conspiracy to impede a federal officer, multiple counts of interstate stalking, interstate threats, solicitation to commit a crime of violence, multiple counts of assault on a federal officer, and destruction of government property.”
Federal prosecutors have characterized the defendants’ alleged actions as an organized campaign aimed at preventing immigration officers from performing their duties.
“As alleged, these defendants, which included members of Antifa groups, engaged in an unrelenting campaign of harassment and violence targeting federal and local law enforcement,” then-Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said when the indictment was announced in June.
“Their actions created a dangerous environment that threatened not only their intended targets, but the community as a whole. These arrests demonstrate the Department’s commitment to law and order and stopping organized political violence in Minneapolis and beyond.”
Prosecutors alleged that DAMN participants used tactics intended to locate and interfere with federal immigration officers.
“DAMN members engage in ‘commuting’ tactics, which include identifying, following, surveilling, harassing, and confronting federal immigration enforcement with the goal of preventing, hindering, delaying, and impeding the enforcement of federal immigration law,” the Justice Department said in June.
Authorities also accused agitators during the unrest of erecting street barricades, using shields, throwing blocks of ice at officers and attempting to identify or “out” ICE and Border Patrol personnel.
The new court documents, however, indicate that investigators looked well beyond the 15 people ultimately charged.
A presentation prepared by Homeland Security investigators reportedly included a slide titled “The Conspiracy” identifying 18 organizations believed to have some connection to the protest activity.
Investigators also obtained years of financial records involving organizations including the Sunrise Movement, the Service Employees International Union and the Communications Workers of America, according to ABC.
None of those organizations identified in the broader investigation has been charged, according to the Times.
The extent of that intelligence gathering has become a central issue for attorneys representing defendants in the criminal case.
Defense lawyer Kevin Riach filed a motion Thursday seeking disclosure of additional material collected during the investigation.
Riach characterized Operation Puppet Master and a subsequent intelligence initiative known as “Project Whipple Shield” as a “broad and irrational investigation” motivated by political considerations rather than evidence of criminal activity, according to ABC.
The network reported that government documents described Department of Homeland Security personnel attending or infiltrating gatherings at churches, schools and parks.
“The reality, according to government documents revealed in court motions, was Department of Homeland Security officers infiltrating meetings in churches, schools and parks that were often simply discussions of constitutionally protected protests,” ABC reported.
A University of California law professor quoted by the network described the activity as “disturbing” and warned that expansive investigations of political organizations could discourage constitutionally protected speech and contribute to fears of a “creeping police state.”
That criticism presents a different picture from the one offered by prosecutors, who maintain that the investigation concerned organized efforts that crossed the boundary between lawful protest and alleged criminal interference with federal officers.
The distinction could become central as litigation proceeds.
Protest activity itself is constitutionally protected, while assault, threats, destruction of government property and deliberate interference with federal law-enforcement operations can give rise to criminal charges. The dispute is over whether investigators appropriately targeted evidence of those crimes or gathered records and intelligence from organizations whose involvement amounted only to political advocacy.
The financial subpoenas are likely to draw particular scrutiny because some reached back more than three years, extending well before the Minnesota unrest that triggered Operation Puppet Master.
For investigators, such records could potentially reveal organizational or financial relationships that preceded the protests. Defense attorneys and critics, however, argue the long time span illustrates how far the investigation expanded beyond the immediate events.
The federal government has so far publicly charged only the 15 defendants associated with Direct Action Minnesota.
The broader organizations examined through financial records or investigative intelligence remain uncharged.
The Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security declined to comment Thursday on the new disclosures.
DHS said it does not comment on the existence or status of ongoing investigations.
The documents now place two related questions before the public and the courts: whether federal investigators uncovered evidence of an organized effort to finance and coordinate criminal interference with immigration enforcement, and whether the methods used to find that evidence improperly swept lawful political organizations and protected protest activity into a federal intelligence operation.
Those questions are expected to remain contested as the criminal cases against the 15 defendants move forward.
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