By Breitbart News Network | Created at 2026-08-14 19:43:56 | Updated at 2026-08-15 00:55:36
9 hours ago
Court documents filed Thursday are revealing the details of a Department of Justice (DOJ) intelligence gathering effort called “Operation Puppet Master” which probed a potential conspiracy by left wing groups to sabotage immigration enforcement in Minnesota.
While legacy media such as the New York Times and ABC News are portraying the revelations as what one critic labeled a “creeping police state,” DOJ authorities described the results of the effort as a “win for law and order” resulting in the arrest of 15 alleged violent agitators earlier this year.
The controversy surrounds the extensive effort by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Border Patrol authorities in the winter to round up criminal illegal aliens in Minneapolis.
Four days after a 37-year-old government nurse was shot and killed while allegedly interfering with a Border Patrol arrest, the investigation was launched, the Times reported.
According to the Times coverage of the court documents:
The target was not the Border Patrol agents who had killed Mr. Pretti, a 37-year-old government nurse, in late January. 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 were filed in connection with the prosecution case of 15 defendants associated with the Direct Action Minnesota (DAMN) who have been charged with a variety of federal crimes.
Those offenses include “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,” according to a detailed DOJ statement earlier this year.
“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,” said then Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche when the indictment was filed in June.
Blanche continued, “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.”
Kevin Riach, a defense attorney in the case, apparently doesn’t see it that way. The documents were released in connection with a motion he filed requesting the government to disclose “more materials collected during the investigation,” ABC reported.
Puppet Master, and another intelligence gathering operation launched later called “Project Whipple Shield,” were a “broad and irrational investigation” driven by politics and not criminal conduct, Riach said in a motion filed Thursday, per the ABC report.
Law enforcement officers detain an activist outside the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building during a protest opposing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on March 1, 2026. (Kerem YUCEL / AFP via Getty Images)
“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,” the ABC report claimed.
Documents reportedly revealed a Power Point “slide” was created by Homeland Security’s investigative branch titled “The Conspiracy,” showed 18 organizations allegedly involved in the protests.
Investigators obtained “years of certain financial records for groups ranging from the Sunrise Movement to other major unions, including the Service Employees International Union and the Communications Workers of America,” the network also noted.
To date, none of the targeted organizations are facing charges, the Times reported.
The ABC report included a quote from a University of California law professor who claimed such “disturbing” investigations restrict free speech and evoke fear of a “creeping police state.”
However, the winter roundup of criminal illegal aliens in Minnesota hatched opposition that went far beyond protestors carrying a few signs and chanting slogans. Agitators erected street blockades, employed shields and violent tactics that included throwing blocks of ice at officers.
RELATED: What Do You Notice About Most of These Anti-ICE Protesters?
Agitators also sought to “out” ICE and Border Patrol agents, prosecutors also said.
“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,” prosecutors said in their June announcement of the indictment.
The DOJ and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) declined to respond to news outlets on Thursday’s revelations, with DHS saying it doesn’t comment on the existence or status of ongoing investigations.
Breitbart contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times true crime best seller House of Secrets and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
