US law enforcement agents obtained authorization to use a controversial surveillance device capable of intercepting cell phone signals to find and arrest a 21-year-old college student who helped produce journalist Don Lemon's coverage of an anti-ICE protest, court filings show. The former student, Jerome Richardson, who has since graduated from Temple University, is among 39 people charged with conspiring to violate worshippers' civil rights and interfering with religious worship at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, in January.
Protesters said they targeted the church's January 18 service because one of its pastors, David Easterwood, also led ICE's St. Paul field office. Those charged include journalists Georgia Fort and Lemon, a former CNN host, who say they were there to cover the demonstration. Twelve days after the protest, judges in two states began signing warrants authorizing agents to use so-called cell-site simulators, commonly known as Stingrays or IMSI catchers, to target Richardson's phone: one in Minnesota on January 30 and another in Pennsylvania the next day. The purpose, his lawyers wrote, was "locating and arresting him."
Agents also applied for cell-site simulator warrants targeting the phones of Fort and Jamael Lundy, then a Minnesota State Senate candidate. It is unclear whether a judge approved any of those applications, and the records do not establish whether investigators actually deployed a device to locate Richardson. Cell-site simulators impersonate cell phone towers and can also collect identifying information from any nearby device, including those of people not suspected of a crime. Privacy advocates have long warned that the devices could be turned against protesters and journalists.
Cooper Quintin, senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, called using such a capability against members of the free press "an appalling attack on the First Amendment." The use of these devices has long been shrouded in secrecy, and the warrants are part of a broader campaign of contentious tactics by federal agents, including 92 customs summonses that defense attorneys are now challenging.
Source: Hacker News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing