Trump created an entire apparatus to spy on the left and arrest them after Charlie Kirk was killed. You just didn't notice it because they did what surveillance operations are supposed to do: work in the shadows. Got what I voted for again!
— Matt Forney (@mattforney) October 28, 2026
This story broke on a leftwing site so keep that in mind as you read the story!
Attorneys for 15 Minnesota residents facing federal conspiracy charges have obtained evidence of a sweeping, possibly unconstitutional spying operation carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement against left-wing social movements in Minnesota and beyond.
The high-profile Minnesota 15 prosecution makes clear that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), flush with federal funds and newly hired personnel, is now President Donald Trump’s primary tool against dissent, with a powerful array of post-9/11 investigative authorities brought to bear against everyday Americans organizing their communities.
Nothing of this scale has been seen in the United States, experts say, since the federal government’s counterinsurgency against the New Left and the anti-war movement in the 1960s and 1970s.
Among the records revealed during the discovery process in these cases are dozens of reports, audio transcripts, emails, intercepted Signal chats, photographs, database queries, and more. They reveal the inner workings of the domestic terrorism investigations, running under the names Project Whipple Shield and Operation Puppet Master, authorized by the controversial National Security Presidential Memorandum 7.
Published following Charlie Kirk’s assassination in September of last year, NSPM 7 instructs federal law enforcement to use every tool available against organizations and people who criticize the administration's policies and espouse "anti-Christian" ideas. The full scope and extent of the investigations it authorizes remains unknown.
Defense attorneys for the Minnesota 15 claim that the prosecution stems from a broader nationwide surveillance operation aimed at opponents of the Trump administration’s immigration policies. One attorney in the case directly compares the DHS-run campaign to the FBI’s infamous Counterintelligence Program, or COINTELPRO, which unconstitutionally surveilled, infiltrated, and blackmailed racial justice, civil rights, and anti-war movements from the 1950s through the early 1970s.
Three former law enforcement officials who reviewed filings concur, telling WIRED that the case is almost certainly part of a wider intelligence-gathering operation that began long before the administration invaded Minnesota in December 2025.
Dueling motions in the case over discovery of DHS’s surveillance program reveal that personnel with Homeland Security Investigations—one of ICE’s two components—repurposed funding mechanisms and investigative tools for serious criminal probes and turned them on domestic dissenters. Operation Keyhole, the HSI undercover program that bankrolled the Minnesota 15 prosecution, dates back to 2008. As of June 2026, it was underwriting a half dozen active undercover investigations in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul area.
Around 120 HSI agents, many drawn from specialized units across the country that have served as the leading edge of the administration’s militarized immigration enforcement operations, were assigned to the case—including 11 undercovers. They used highly invasive surveillance techniques, including the deployment of Reaper drones and Patriot Act tools usually restricted to money laundering and terrorism investigations. Undercover operatives also infiltrated churches in apparent violation of a court order.
The Minnesota 15 indictment stems from the Trump administration’s demand that the Justice Department “go big and go loud” to crack down on community response networks during last winter’s Operation Metro Surge. Twin Cities activists organized volunteers to monitor DHS agents and their vehicles using encrypted Signal groups, homebuilt vehicle databases, and a centralized dispatch system. Government prosecutors claim that this amounts to a criminal conspiracy to block immigration enforcement, unlawfully identify and stalk federal agents, and even assault them.
Their defense attorneys say the heavy charges filed against the Minnesota 15 don’t align with their alleged conduct. “This is the first time I’ve had a client who’s accused of a conspiracy and went on a speaking tour,” says Kevin Riach, who represents defendant Isaac Sant.
Peeking Through the Keyhole
An internal ICE document laying out the scope of Operation Puppet Master—which led to the indictment of the Minneapolis 15—ends by noting, “This case has also been accepted under CUC Op Keyhole.” According to prosecutors, Operation Keyhole is a long-standing program created by HSI’s Saint Paul office to fund “undercover activity”—primarily equipment purchases and personnel costs—in a region covering Minnesota, North and South Dakota, Iowa, and Nebraska. The program has funded at least 77 investigations into “narcotics trafficking, child sexual abuse, financial investigations, and counter-proliferation” since it started in December 2008.The CUC prefix, per an internal 2008 DHS handbook unearthed by the independent media outlet Unicorn Riot, refers to Certified Undercover Operations, a formal designation with clearly defined oversight mechanisms, procedures, and reporting requirements. Operation Keyhole’s parameters are reviewed every six months by a committee comprising senior DOJ and DHS officials. As of June 2026, when it was last renewed, Keyhole funded six active investigations, including Project Whipple Shield, which was initiated in February to probe claims of assault, stalking, and doxing of DHS agents and other federal employees, and underpins the Minnesota 15 indictment.
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