{"id":122624,"date":"2026-04-13T23:08:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T23:08:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2026\/04\/13\/doj-is-using-a-grand-jury-to-force-reddit-to-unmask-an-anonymous-user\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T23:09:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T23:09:34","slug":"doj-is-using-a-grand-jury-to-force-reddit-to-unmask-an-anonymous-user","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mailinvest.blog\/index.php\/2026\/04\/13\/doj-is-using-a-grand-jury-to-force-reddit-to-unmask-an-anonymous-user\/","title":{"rendered":"DOJ Is Using A Grand Jury To Force Reddit To Unmask An Anonymous User"},"content":{"rendered":"

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from the government-cheat-codes<\/i> dept<\/h3>\n

The federal government\u2019s reliance on grand juries to deliver costs in opposition to activists, protesters, and the president\u2019s private enemies has been misplaced<\/a>. More and more, grand juries are refusing to present the federal government what it desires: rubber-stamped indictments that may enable it to maneuver ahead with vindictive prosecutions.<\/p>\n

However there\u2019s nonetheless one thing grand juries provide that common courts can\u2019t: secrecy. If the federal government doesn\u2019t need the general public to know the way it\u2019s constructing circumstances, it\u2019s greatest guess to pull everybody concerned in entrance of a grand jury whose secrecy can\u2019t simply be pierced with out a concerted effort by concerned events and the help of sympathetic judges.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a superb cause the federal government doesn\u2019t need the general public to know what it\u2019s doing in this case detailed by Ryan Devereaux for The Intercept<\/a>. There\u2019s some shady stuff taking place right here, together with some extremely incompetent stuff. <\/p>\n

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In accordance with a subpoena obtained by The Intercept, Reddit has till April 14 to offer a variety of non-public knowledge on one among its customers, whom U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers have been making an attempt unsuccessfully to establish for greater than a month.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That\u2019s the transient summation. The small print, nonetheless, make this entire factor look sketch as fuck. Reddit obtained the primary demand for this consumer\u2019s knowledge on March 4. Two days later, it knowledgeable the consumer that the federal government was searching for this data. The Reddit consumer secured authorized illustration from the Civil Liberties Protection Middle.<\/p>\n

The consumer\u2019s legal professionals appeared by way of the focused account and couldn\u2019t discover something that could be thought-about felony.<\/p>\n

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Commenting on a Minnesota Star Tribune\u00a0article<\/a>, one other Reddit consumer posted that Ross could be welcomed as a hero in Florida or Texas. John Doe responded by sharing that Ross had lived in Chaska, Minnesota; grew up in Indiana; and served within the Indiana Nationwide Guard \u2014 biographical particulars that had been circulating broadly on the time. \u201cHopefully he strikes as much as Stillwater State Penitentiary,\u201d they wrote.<\/em><\/p>\n

In one other publish, a Reddit consumer requested what they need to write on an anti-ICE protest signal. John Doe steered the lyrics to a\u00a0song<\/a>: \u201cUrine speaks louder than phrases.\u201d In a 3rd occasion, Doe wrote, \u201cTSA sucks and everyone knows it.\u201d In accordance with the Reddit consumer\u2019s attorneys, these had been essentially the most aggressive posts they may discover.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Whereas one would hardly anticipate authorized reps to dish out inculpatory data in response to journalist\u2019s questions, the dearth of something presumably law-breaking speaks for itself. The entire thing appears like a fishing expedition by the DOJ on behalf of ICE \u2014 one thing that\u2019s confirmed by the executive subpoena ICE issued in hopes of unmasking this consumer. <\/p>\n

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In its summons, ICE indicated the premise for its request was a provision of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930<\/strong>. John Doe knowledgeable the courtroom that that they had nothing to do with the sort of actions at situation within the near-century-old statute, which governs boat present gross sales, wild animal imports, forfeited wines and spirits, and cross-border commerce in different items<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

In case you\u2019ve forgotten, the C in ICE stands for \u201cCustoms.\u201d Meaning whoever \u201cwrote\u201d this subpoena didn\u2019t even care sufficient to make sure the right boilerplate was copy-pasted into the subpoena. ICE desires to punish this individual for his or her speech, which it seemingly believes provides as much as a federal crime. In assist of its demand for consumer information, it inserted boilerplate pertaining to customs enforcement. <\/p>\n

Then once more, this may need been intentional laziness. As The Intercept notes, the Trump administration tried to make use of the identical customs statutes to unmask his critics again in 2017. These efforts had been criticized by the still-operable Workplace of the Inspector Common.<\/p>\n

ICE withdrew the tariff-related subpoena. Then the DOJ despatched one other one practically a month later, this time concentrating on Reddit itself:<\/p>\n

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This time, as a substitute of requesting data on a person consumer, the federal government ordered Reddit itself to look earlier than a grand jury \u2014 not in California, however in Washington.<\/em><\/p>\n

The request got here not from an ICE subject agent however moderately from a Particular Assistant U.S. Lawyer in D.C., the place Reddit has obtained the best variety of federal regulation enforcement data requests. The data sought spanned a interval roughly thrice longer than what ICE had initially requested.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That\u2019s the backdoor the DOJ is making an attempt to make use of. It might\u2019t get the stuff it thinks will generate an indictment by way of the standard Smoot-Hawley regardless of the fuck. And because it\u2019s not involved in searching for an precise warrant (which might require judicial evaluate) to compel Reddit to supply consumer knowledge and data, it\u2019s hoping it may well accomplish the identical factor in a secret courtroom far-off from something resembling an adversarial course of, a lot much less the watchful eyes of a federal choose.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the Division of Justice intentionally routing round a vital a part of the justice system in hopes of securing ill-gotten \u201cwins\u201d in opposition to critics of Trump, his insurance policies, and his administration normally. Hopefully, this try gained\u2019t work as a result of it\u2019s been uncovered. However relaxation assured, this administration won’t ever cease making an attempt to bypass the methods of checks and balances which may sometimes stop it from doing no matter it desires. <\/p>\n

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\tFiled Below: administrative warrants<\/a>, doj<\/a>, grand juries<\/a>, ice<\/a>, trump administration<\/a>
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Corporations: eff<\/a>, reddit<\/a>\n<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n