(Bloomberg) -- The US Justice Department is seeking the names, addresses, and banking information of Reddit and X users, ratcheting up efforts to identify social media critics of government deportation efforts.
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The US Attorney's Office for Washington, led by Jeanine Pirro, a close ally of President Donald Trump, has subpoenaed the social media companies as part of criminal investigations, asking for personal information on at least two anonymous posters behind accounts that have chided immigration enforcement efforts, according to records shared by attorneys for the users.
The anonymous users, who learned of the subpoenas from the platforms and hired lawyers to challenge the government’s demands for information, haven’t been told what possible offenses are being probed. 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. 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.
In recent sealed court proceedings, a federal judge is weighing the posters’ requests to have the government’s subpoenas to the companies tossed out. Grand jury activity generally isn't open to the public but the recipients of these types of evidence-gathering tools are allowed to disclose certain information about them.
The effort represents an escalation in the use of law enforcement tools by the administration, which has sought to protect the identities of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. Other initiatives have become a flashpoint in an ongoing battle over funding the Department of Homeland Security, which is ICE's parent agency, including allowing officers to wear masks while in public and trying to criminalize the recording and publishing of video of their operations.
Civil liberties groups have been raising alarms about efforts by US officials to unmask online critics amid the surge of public opposition to the administration’s hardline policies, including ramped up deportation arrests nationwide and violent clashes with protesters. They warn the tactics are an attempt to chill protected free speech.
Court records show the Trump administration has abandoned the use of administrative summonses and other demands, which don’t have to go through a judge or court process, when confronted with legal challenges. Then, in at least two cases, the Justice Department raised the stakes by seeking grand jury subpoenas.
“They started with an administrative summons, which does not indicate a criminal investigation, and then progressed to the grand jury subpoena, which does,” said Lauren Regan, an attorney representing a social media user who posted criticism of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Reddit. The move, she added, “is further proof that this is a bad faith attempt to unmask the user.”
Regan, a co-leader of the Civil Liberties Defense Center, said some of her client’s posts were as simple as “expletive ICE.” The subpoena doesn't specify the post or posts that caught the government’s attention, but Regan said she suspects it was one that appeared to reference the ICE officer who shot Minnesota protester Renee Good and where the official had lived.
It’s not clear to her what laws the government is alleging were broken by the comments.
The Justice Department declined to comment about the subpoenas, the reason for using them and potential crimes being investigated. The Department of Homeland Security didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The investigations come as the Trump administration and its allies increasingly portray “doxxing” -- publishing personal information online about someone without their consent -- as a growing threat against federal immigration officers. The issue gained national attention after Good's death, which sparked outrage, protests and online sleuthing to identify the officer involved. Homeland Security officials says that publishing officers’ personal details could endanger agents and their families, while critics said the administration has been using accusations of doxxing to justify broader crackdowns on online speech and scrutiny of immigration enforcement.
Doxxing sits in a legal gray area. Several states have passed laws specifically targeting the practice. Republican senators announced legislation earlier this month that would make it a federal crime to publish identifying information about federal law enforcement if it's meant to interfere with their operations.
The grand jury subpoenas reviewed by Bloomberg were signed by the same prosecutor in the US attorney’s office in Washington, Brendan Horan, who has been involved in several recent cases related to alleged threats against US officials. They direct the companies to deliver records to an ICE office. 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.
Reddit and X have notified some users to give them a chance to oppose the requests for data, giving individuals a short window to intervene and challenge the subpoenas in court before the deadline for companies to provide information to the government.
Grand jury subpoenas are a powerful investigative tool wielded by federal prosecutors and issued at their discretion. These demands for documents or testimony -- potential evidence for the government to present to grand jurors deciding whether to indict -- do not receive a judicial review unless challenged.
Failure to comply with a grand jury subpoena can lead to fines and jail time. And they’re difficult to fight.
“Court precedent has imposed a heavy burden on the defendant to quash a subpoena,” said former federal prosecutor Bonnie Greenberg, speaking generally about the process. “It’s really, really hard.”
A challenger has to prove the request is unreasonable or oppressive, Greenberg said. In her 37 years as an assistant US attorney, only one individual attempted to quash a grand jury subpoena, and the judge ruled against them.
Subpoenas are also very easy for a prosecutor to attain. “All you have to do is ask your legal assistant to type it out and have somebody serve it,” Greenberg said.
San Francisco-based First Amendment lawyer Joshua Koltun represents a user who posted what he described as a sarcastic remark on X about donating to the ICE officer who shot Good. The post included an address that the user had seen elsewhere on social media, according to court filings.
“The post does not contain a trace or an inkling that any violence was intended,” said Koltun, who has litigated other anonymous speech cases. Even if the government never prosecutes a defendant over the ICE posts, the damage to free speech has already been done, he said.
The government has prosecuted doxxing in the past, but those cases usually involve allegations of threats or harassment against federal employees in addition to sharing personal information.
X notified Koltun's client in mid-March that it had received an administrative summons to produce the user's information from Homeland Security Investigations, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, court records show. Koltun filed a request with a federal judge in Texas contesting the demand. By early May, Koltun said he had learned that DHS had withdrawn the summons and that DOJ had issued the grand jury subpoena to X.
“It’s a very chilling thing to get a subpoena to find out your identity, and to run the risk that some ICE agent is going to be knocking on your door,” he said.
Reddit notified Regan's client in early March about receiving an administrative summons from Homeland Security Investigations, according to a copy included in public court documents. That summons cited a law related to customs compliance, which administration opponents have argued in court is untethered to efforts to identify anonymous posters online.
Two weeks after Regan’s organization filed a request in a California federal court to challenge the summons, the government withdrew it, court records show. The grand jury subpoena was issued to Reddit on March 31, according to a copy reviewed by Bloomberg.
While Reddit and other social media companies may notify users of subpoenas seeking their information unless barred by exceptional circumstances, they don’t typically contest such requests, leaving the user to fend for themselves. The clients of Koltun and Regan have filed motions in each case to quash the subpoenas.
“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.”
When legally compelled to disclose data, Reddit provides “only the minimum required” and tries to “notify the user whenever possible so they can defend their interests and ensure our users are equipped to fully exercise their rights.”
The Reddit subpoena was reported earlier by The Intercept.
An X spokesperson did not respond to requests for comment.
Both Regan and Koltun have objected to the subpoenas for their clients’ information, and have moved to unseal the cases, which are pending before US District Chief Judge James Boasberg.
The court’s chief judge typically handles matters related to grand jury proceedings. Boasberg has already attracted Trump’s ire for rulings against his administration, including an unrelated blockbuster decision preventing US prosecutors from enforcing grand jury subpoenas for Federal Reserve documents for a probe into building renovation costs.
Anonymous speech is a bedrock of the US political system, said First Amendment Coalition Executive Director David Snyder. He pointed to The Federalist Papers, which are 18th century essays written to encourage ratification of the US Constitution by some of the nation’s founding fathers. They used the pseudonym “Publius.”
“They understood at a very visceral level that in order to speak your mind, sometimes you need to be able to do so anonymously,” Snyder said, “so the government doesn’t come after you.”
(Updates with information about doxxing allegations.)
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