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DOJ Used Pam Bondi’s Trophy Arrests as an Excuse to Spy on Minnesota’s Anti-ICE Community
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I wrote about Isaac Sant’s blockbuster court filing the other day, the exhibits to which revealed the conspiracy theory that clearly lay behind the Minnesota 15 indictment (which I predicted here).That filing works on three different levels. The first was tactical: to get a bunch of exhibits released showing wide-ranging and feckless surveillance. Both local and national media outlets picked up the filing on that level.
At a second level, this was a motion for more discovery, which I’ll explain in this post.
At a third level, this motion maps out a monstrous effort, starting last year in the wake of the Charlie Kirk murder, to criminalize any opposition to Trump. I’ll come back to this in a follow-up post.
Sant — the lead defendant and separately charged with stalking for following an ICE goon into Wisconsin in May — asks for the following in discovery that would allow him to situate his own prosecution: he plans to use it to file a selective and vindictive prosecution motion.
- “The Court should require the government to produce all reports related to surveillance of Minnesota unions, non-profit organizations, protesters and activists.” This would disclose whether the mentions of spying on unions like SEIU and CWA went further than what defendants have obtained in discovery.
- “The Court should require the government to produce the withheld Project Whipple Shield ROIs.” The government has withheld five Reports of Investigation from the Project Whipple Shield investigation (the sub-investigation of a larger investigation), claiming that those relate to an ongoing investigation.
- “The Court should require the government to produce reports generated pursuant to CUC Operation Keyhole.” The sub-investigation of Project Whipple Shield is part of a larger MN investigation, Operation Puppet Master, which is part of a broader investigation, Operation Keyhole. Sant is demanding the overarching documents.
- “The Court should require the government to produce all of the Clearview AI reports it generated of protesters and activists during Operation Metro Surge.” Sant showed that HSI developed a Clearview dossier on him (with some inaccuracies); he’s demanding all of them.
- “The Court should require the government to produce internal communications related to Operation Puppet Master and Project Whipple Shield.” Sant argues this investigation was predicated on criminalization of First Amendment protected activities; he wants records that may show that.
- “The Court should require the government to produce downloads of all UCA ‘undercover phones’ and ‘undercover laptops.'” DOJ has not turned over the phones and laptops from informants. Sant wants them.
- “The Court should require the government to produce DOJ and DHS communications related to the charging decisions, defendant self-surrender, and doxxing in the AFO cases.” Sant — who is represented by Kevin Riach, who also represented one of the people Pam Bondi doxxed, Paul Johnson — wants records on that doxxing that DOJ withheld by dismissing cases (including Johnson’s).
Many of these would serve to expose the scope of the spying in Minnesota and its direction from DC — but it’ll be a tough reach to get those communications without first demonstrating that this is a vindictive prosecution.
More interesting is his bid to get communications relating to the doxxing of 16 previously arrested defendants that Pam Bondi rolled out as trophies on January 28.
To support this request, Sant describes what happened in the wake of the Renee Good shooting, as DOJ refused to investigate that shooting, but instead tried to criminalize the opposition in Minnesota to retroactively rationalize first her, then Alex Pretti’s killing.
On January 13, 2026, a cadre of experienced and highly-respected federal prosecutors – including the entire management team– resigned en masse in protest of the politicization of federal criminal law enforcement in Minnesota.14 Unfortunately, these resignations – which should have served as a wake-up call to DOJ – did little to slow the decline of a once great U.S. Attorney’s office into a political prosecution factory.
In the immediate aftermath of Alex Pretti’s murder, [Todd Blanche fixer Aakash] Singh directed federal prosecutors to aggressively charge protesters in Minnesota. According to the New York Times:
In a conference call in late January, the official, Aakash Singh, laid out the department’s basis for prosecuting demonstrators: National Security Presidential Memo 7, a sweeping directive issued by President Trump last September. It expanded the definition of domestic terrorism to include not only violent crimes like assault, but also relatively minor ones, like revealing the personal details of agents or getting in the way of immigration enforcement.
Mr. Singh said that “coordinators” in U.S. attorneys’ offices responsible for charging protesters under NSPM-7 should be “hounding” federal agents to make cases, according to people familiar with his remarks. He also suggested that the department wanted headlines along with indictments, promising that officials in Washington would be “blasting out” prosecutors’ work.
“Go big,” Mr. Singh said, “and go loud.”15
On January 28, 2026, DHS and the U.S. Attorney’s office put Singh’s direction into action. In one day, DHS both initiated “Operation Puppet Master” and also conducted the orchestrated self-surrender and doxxing of sixteen individuals charged with assaulting federal officers. The names and photos of these individuals were disseminated on Pam Bondi’s and DHS’ X (twitter) accounts, leading to widespread online harassment. The whole episode was clearly pre-designed to intimidate and deter other protestors from exercising their First Amendment rights – the same purpose as this prosecution.
Because these AFO cases had everything to do with public relations, and nothing to do with public safety, they quickly collapsed. Cursory review of the evidence showed that agents had lied and defendants were innocent. The government has voluntarily dismissed eight of the sixteen cases. 16 Others await dismissal. A week after the AFO cases were filed, eight more experienced AUSAs resigned in disgust, including the civil chief. 17 Again, the alarm bells should have gone off at DOJ. Instead, it doubled-down, opening Project Whipple Shield, expanding its surveillance of Minnesotans, and beginning the process of indicting this case.
14 https://www.mprnews.org/story/2026/01/13/us-attorney-on-minnesota-fraud-joethompson-resigns-from-office
15 https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/19/us/politics/justice-dept-prosecute-protesters.html
16 U.S. v. Sager, Case No. 26-mj-69 (MJD/DJF); U.S. v. Tschida, Case No. 26-mj-54 (SGE); U.S. v. Williams, Case No. 26-mj-70 (SGE); U.S. v. Adbebe, Case No. 26-mj-77 (DJF); U.S. v. Valentine, Case No. 26-mj-28 (DLM); U.S. v. Ahmed, Case No. 26-mj-24 (DLM); U.S. v. Johnson, Case No. 26-mj-81 (SGE); U.S. v. Rank, Case No. 26-mj-56 (SGE). [Note, I believe Riasch is missing
17 https://www.npr.org/2026/02/05/nx-s1-5702356/more-frustrated-prosecutors-at-the-u-sattorneys-office-in-minnesota-call-it-quits
Sant is arguing that those trumped up arrests and Pam Bondi’s use of them as trophies were used as the predicate to create this investigation.
The nested case opening memos rely on the pre-existence of imagined assaults on cops. HSI opened Operation Puppet Master, which is the predicate to investigate imaginary funding, on February 16, long after the infiltration of activists started. It claimed that “violent opportunists” had “perpetrated multiple assaults against federal officers.”
Since November 28, 2026, ongoing protests and incidents of civil unrest have occurred in public areas throughout Minneapolis, MN. During these events, violent opportunists (VOs) have exploited the protests as cover to attempt breaches of federal properties and have perpetrated multiple assaults against federal officers tasked with protecting these facilities.
In response, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) initiated a coordinated, agency-wide deployment to support the Federal Protective Service (FPS) in fulfilling its mission to safeguard federal property. As part of this effort, HSI St. Paul has identified an organized network of conspirators operating through online and in person who are providing material support to violent opportunists and agitators involved in impeding federal law enforcement, rioting, destruction of Federal property and assaults on Federal agents and Officers.
Then on March 10, HSI approved the retroactive opening of Project Whipple Shield, which it claimed also started on February 11. It also relies on claimed assaults on HSI officers to justify the investigation.
Since November 2025, ongoing incidents of demonstrations and civil unrest have occurred in the Minneapolis, MN area. Some individuals have exploited these incidents to engage in criminal activity, including impeding law enforcement, assaults against law enforcement officers, and damage to property. In accordance with National Security Presidential Memorandum–7 (NSPM-7), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) St. Paul has opened an investigation into instances where individuals and organized networks have exploited events to engage in acts of violence, destruction of property, intimidation of federal officers and employees, and attempts to impede federal operations. This investigation is focused on identifying and disrupting sophisticated, organized campaigns supporting and engaging in this behavior and to prevent such unlawful activities, while continuing to safeguard the rights of peaceful demonstrators and the public.
In other words, HSI justified infiltrating activist groups based off claims that ICE protestors had assaulted ICE goons.
And almost all of those cases have fallen apart (or are in the process of falling apart), many of them when attorneys, including Sant’s attorney, Kevin Riach, pointed out that the trophy photos were a violation of the sealing order that DOJ itself demanded (in that case, HSI also took photos while Riach’s client was hospitalized recovering from his assault by ICE). I wrote about these challenges here; I’ve updated below what has happened to the 16 activists that Pam Bondi paraded around as trophies even as HSI turned to infiltrate the anti-ICE activists in Minnesota.
But something David Schultz, the Magistrate Judge presiding over the pretrial proceedings in this case, said in the case of Gillian Etherington (who was accused of backing into CBP later on the same day, but after, Good was killed) in a hearing on April 28 is worth noting. When Schultz scheduled a hearing to discuss Etherington’s motion for details about their arrest, Schultz described how the HSI officer who attested this and related cases did not have personal knowledge of what happened.
Let me start by saying one of the motions that Mr. Morrison filed was for — or was alleging duplicity, in response to which the government filed a bill of particulars in this case. The bill of particulars is not verbatim a copy of the affidavit that was filed with the original criminal complaint charging Ms. Etherington with a felony, but it’s pretty darn close.
That affidavit was filed by Agent Richard Berger. And the affidavit states in paragraph 4 that “This affidavit is based on my personal knowledge, as well as information that I have learned.”
Now you, Ms. Stark, or the folks observing this hearing, may not be aware of this; but while I was on criminal duty in January, when a good number of these assault on federal officer cases were being filed by way of criminal complaint and we had affidavits from Mr. Berger, in all of them I became concerned with the veracity of the affidavits.
And so I questioned Mr. Berger about the basis for his affidavits, and specifically I asked him to outline the process by which he and other agents were conducting the information download at the Whipple Building.
It became quite clear, it is without doubt in the court’s mind, that Mr. Berger does not, did not have any personal knowledge of the events described in the affidavits that he has submitted to this court as sworn affidavits. He swore that the affidavit was based on “personal knowledge,” among other things. That’s a false affidavit.
Schultz accused Richard Berger of submitting false affidavits to him (something other HSI agents were doing in the Cities Church case in the same time period), and went on to lay out how even the Bill of Particulars differs from what the video evidence actually shows.
Shortly after that hearing, Etherington’s case was continued 180 days (I’ve laid out the status of that and the other 15 trophy arrests below; though have not updated all the JAGs they’ve cycled through as SAUSAs).
But it matters that the Magistrate Judge in this case believes that HSI lied to him back in January to gin up claims of assault against ICE and CBP. Because, Isaac Sant argues, that is the excuse they used to infiltrate the anti-ICE activist community in Minnesota in the first place.
They lied about those assaults, then used the assaults to spy on anti-ICE activists.
1. Gillian Etherington
Defense Attorney Aaron Morrison
26-mj-56
Charged for January 7 conflict with CBP in affidavit attested (by FaceTime) on January 23 by HSI SA Richard Berger. Downgraded to misdemeanor. John Arboleda filed notice of appearance.- MTD failure to state offense.
- MTD lack of probable cause.
- MTS for unlawful stop.
May 15: Case continued 6 months.
2. Paul Johnson
Defense Attorney Kevin Riach
26-mj-81
Charged for January 22 conflict with CBP in affidavit attested on January 26 by HSI SA Richard Berger. Michael Hakes-Rodriguez filed notice of appearance. William Richards files notice of appearance.- Motion for grand jury transcripts.
- Motion for discovery on assault and hospitalization.
- Motion to strike JAG officer (Amicus).
- Opposition to protective order.
- Motion to dismiss for outrageous government conduct and vindictive prosecution.
- MTD failure to state an offense.
- Motion to suppress.
July 6: Case dismissed
3. Matrim Charlebois
Defense Attorney Lisa Lopez
26-mj-59
Charged for January 13 incident at Whipple in affidavit attested on January 23 by HSI SA Richard Berger. Downgraded to misdemeanor. John Arboleda filed notice of appearance. Robert Tucker filed notice of appearance.- Motion for grand jury transcripts.
- MTD failure to state a claim.
May 18: Case continued 6 months.
4. Ilan Wilson-Soler
Defense Attorney Patrick Cotter
26-mj-84
Allegedly sprayed a fire extinguisher at ICE at Roosevelt High and hit someone with it while running away. Downgraded to misdemeanor. Zain Abid filed notice of appearance. Richard Hoover files appearance.- Motion for grand jury transcripts.
- Show cause, protective order.
- MTD failure to state an offense.
May 18: Case continued six months, motion to dismiss denied without prejudice.
5. Abdikadir Noor
Defense Attorney Dane DeKrey
26-mj-62
Charged for January 12 incident in St. Cloud in affidavit attested on January 23 by HSI Richard Berger; Abdikadir’s name initially misspelled. Michael Hakes-Rodriguez filed notice of appearance.Noor chose to file no motions (I would be unsurprised if they mistook him for some other Somali they were trying to racially profile); his trial has been scheduled for August.
Late last month, Noor changed his approach this this case and asked to go to trial; it is now set for a December trial.
6. Margaret Sager
Defense Attorney Bruce Nestor
26-mj-69
Alleged to have jumped on ICE goon’s back and put him in a stranglehold blocks away from where Renee Good was killed and area where Aliya Rahman was assaulted. Downgraded to misdemeanor. Zain Abid filed appearance. Richard Hoover filed appearance.- Motion for discovery regarding assault of Aliya Rahman.
- Order to show cause, seal order.
May 19: Case dismissed.
7. Kirubele Adbebe
Defense Attorney Manda Sertich
26-mj-77
Charged for January 13 incident at Whipple in affidavit attested via FaceTime on January 26 by Richard Berger. Downgraded to misdemeanor. John Arboleda filed notice of appearance. Robert Tucker filed notice of appearance.- Motion to show cause (sealing order).
- Motion for grand jury transcripts.
June 3: Case dismissed with prejudice.
8. Nasra Ahmed
Defense Attorney Jordan Kushner
26-mj-24
Charged for January 14 incident with ICE ERO in affidavit attested via FaceTime on January 20 by HSI SA Bronson Day. Downgraded to misdemeanor. John Arboleda filed notice of appearance. Robert Tucker filed notice of appearance.June 12: Case dismissed with prejudice.
9. Helicity Borowska
Defense Attorney Aaron Morrison
26-mj-61
Charged for January 16 incident with CBP in affidavit attested via FaceTime on January 23 by Richard Berger. Downgraded to misdemeanor. John Arboleda filed notice of appearance. Robert Tucker filed notice of appearance.- MTD failure to state claim.
- MTD lack of probable cause.
- Motion for grand jury transcripts.
Update: On April 30, Borowska withdrew their pretrial motions and asked for a 6-month continuance, which was granted.
10. Joshua Doyle
Defense Attorney Aaron Morrison
26-mj-80
Charged for January 21 incident with HSI at DuPont and Colfax in affidavit attested via FaceTime on January 26 by Richard Berger. Downgraded to misdemeanor. John Arboleda filed notice of appearance.- Motion for gag order (delete post).
- MTD failure to state offense.
- MTD lack of probable cause.
- Motion for grand jury transcripts.
May 21: Case continued for 6 months.
11. Nitzana Flores
Defense Attorney Aaron Morrison
26-mj-57
Charged for January 7 incident with CBP by Roosevelt School in affidavit attested via FaceTime on January 23 by Richard Berger. Downgraded to misdemeanor. Michael Hakes-Rodriguez filed notice of appearance. William Richards files notice of appearance.- Objection to protective order.
- MTD failure to state offense.
- MTD lack of probable cause.
- Motion for grand jury transcripts.
May 27: Case continued 6 months.
12. Christina Rank
Defense Attorney Bruce Nestor
26-mj-56
Charged for January 12 incident with ICE in Inver Grove Heights in affidavit attested via FaceTime on January 23 by Richard Berger. Downgraded to misdemeanor. Michael Hakes-Rodriguez filed notice of appearance.- Show cause, sealing order.
- Motion for discovery on retaliating against observers.
July 22: Case dismissed with prejudice.
13. Madeline Tschida
Defense Attorney Joseph T Dixon, III
26-mj-54
Charged for January 16 incident with ICE ERO in Monticello in affidavit attested via FaceTime on January 23 by Richard Berger. Downgraded to misdemeanor. Zain Abid filed notice of appearance.February 23: Case dismissed.
14. Alice Valentine
Defense Attorney Siri Carlson McDowell
26-mj-28
Charged for January 12 incident in St. Cloud with named Executive Associate Directors of ICE ERO. Affidavit attested by Bronson Day to Douglas Micko via Facetime on January 20. Downgraded to misdemeanor. Zain Abid filed notice of appearance.- MTS claiming she was unlawfully seized.
April 20: Case dismissed.
15. William Vermie
Defense Attorney: Aaron J Morrison
26-mj-71
Charged for January 13 incident on Park Ave in affidavit attested via FaceTime and email on January 23 by Richard Berger. Zain Abid filed notice of appearance.- MTD failure to state a claim.
- Motion for grand jury transcripts.
- MTD outrageous government conduct (because ICE pushed him first).
- MTD lack of probable cause.
May 12: Case continued 6 months.
16. Quentin Williams
Defense Attonrey: Bruce Nestor
26-mj-70
Charged for January 7 CBP invasion of Roosevelt High School in affidavit attested via FaceTime on January 23 by Richard Berger. Downgraded to misdemeanor. Zain Abid filed notice of appearance.March 24: Case dismissed.
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