Unmasking anonymous ICE critic
Trump admin reportedly gets grand jury involved in attempt to identify Redditor.
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The Trump administration has stepped up an effort to unmask a Reddit user who criticized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). After failing to obtain information through a summons issued to Reddit, the government reportedly issued a subpoena demanding that Reddit provide the information and appear before a grand jury in Washington, DC.
The Intercept described the subpoena today. “According to a subpoena obtained by The Intercept, Reddit has until April 14 to provide a wide range of personal data on one of its users, whom US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been trying unsuccessfully to identify for more than a month,” the article said.
The legal saga began in US District Court for the Northern District of California. On March 12, the anonymous Reddit user whose information is being sought filed a motion to quash a summons seeking a host of information from Reddit. The summons was issued by the Department of Homeland Security and directed Reddit to turn information over to an ICE senior special agent.
The summons cited authority under 19 U.S. Code § 1509, which is part of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. The motion to quash said the summons is not authorized by the law, which deals with imports of boats, alcoholic drinks, and animals, among other things.
“J. Doe is a US citizen who has not traveled out of the country, is not engaged in any international commerce, has no business concerns outside the United States, and primarily uses their Reddit account to engage in political speech relevant to their local community,” said the filing by the Civil Liberties Defense Center (CLDC), which represents the Reddit user. “Yet the government claims the right to obtain Doe’s name, telephone number, home address, banking and credit card information, IP addresses, telephone model number(s), and the names of any other accounts associated with their Reddit account. The information sought by the government in no way pertains to customs or importing or exporting merchandise, and is clearly intended to chill free speech.”
No “criminal activity or intent” in user’s posts
The Trump administration has accused ICE critics of doxxing agents in some cases. But the copy of the summons to Reddit available on the court docket doesn’t identify any specific posts made by the Reddit user, who lives in Oregon.
“When John Doe’s attorneys later reviewed their Reddit posts, they found nothing to suggest criminal activity or intent,” The Intercept article said. In one instance, Doe commented in response to a Minnesota Star Tribune article in January 2026 about Jonathan Ross, the ICE officer who fatally shot Renée Good in Minneapolis.
“John Doe responded by sharing that Ross had lived in Chaska, Minnesota; grew up in Indiana; and served in the Indiana National Guard—biographical details that were circulating widely at the time,” and wrote that “Hopefully he moves up to Stillwater State Penitentiary,” according to The Intercept.
On a different occasion, Doe suggested that another Reddit user write “Urine speaks louder than words” on an anti-ICE protest sign. “TSA sucks and we all know it,” Doe wrote in another comment thread.
Doe submitted a declaration stating, “I utilize this account to engage in political speech through direct posts, as well as dialogue with community members in comment threads associated with my own and others’ posts. Reddit allows users to post and engage on the service without publicly disclosing their legal identity. Like many other users on the site, I use Reddit to converse anonymously.”
Case ended, but then Reddit was subpoenaed
The dispute seemed to be over in late March when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) rescinded the summons and notified Reddit of this decision. The proceeding in the California court was dismissed at Doe’s request.
But on March 31, “Reddit received another message from the feds,” The Intercept reported. “This time, instead of requesting information on an individual user, the government ordered Reddit itself to appear before a grand jury—not in California, but in Washington.”
The subpoena was issued by prosecutors from the US Attorney’s office in DC, and the “records sought spanned a period roughly three times longer than what ICE had originally requested,” the article said. The US Attorney for the District of Columbia is Jeanine Pirro. The grand jury subpoena is a new tactic being used by the Trump administration after it repeatedly lost attempts to subpoena information in court, The Intercept was told by CLDC Executive Director Lauren Regan.
Grand jury proceedings are not public. Grand juries may issue indictments after assessing evidence presented by prosecutors to determine whether there is probable cause that someone committed a crime. Witnesses may be called to give testimony. If an indictment is issued, the accused would be put on trial.
“The only valid use of a grand jury is to investigate federal crimes,” Regan told The Intercept. It’s unclear how Doe’s Reddit posts are evidence of a crime, and the administration is “able to hide what they are doing under the guise of a federal grand jury,” she said.
While the now-withdrawn summons is public, we do not have a copy of the subpoena. The CLDC told Ars today that it has no further comment on the case and noted that grand jury subpoenas are issued in secret.
Reddit: “We do not voluntarily share information with any government”
David Greene, senior counsel for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, “knew of no examples during the recent wave of immigration enforcement-related investigations in which a leading tech company has been called to appear before one of the secret panels,” The Intercept article said. “Free speech protections are at their weakest in the context of a grand jury, he explained: The proceedings are not adversarial; their purpose is to permit a prosecutor to file charges.”
“We should be very, very, very concerned that they’ve now taken one of these to a grand jury,” Greene was quoted as saying. “It’s something to be taken very seriously.”
A Reddit spokesperson told Ars today that “we seek to inform users of any legal process compelling disclosure of their data, as we did in this case, because users should have the agency to protect their own information and are often better positioned to challenge requests that impact them.”
Reddit didn’t provide any details on the subpoena but said, “We do not voluntarily share information with any government, especially not on users exercising their rights to criticize the government or plan a protest. We review every inquiry for legal sufficiency and routinely object to requests that are overbroad or threaten civil rights. When legally compelled to disclose data, we provide only the minimum required and notify the user whenever possible so they can defend their interests.”
We contacted the US attorney’s office in DC, the DHS, and ICE and will update this article if we get any new information.
Disclosure: Advance Publications, which owns Ars Technica parent Condé Nast, is the largest shareholder in Reddit.
Jon is a Senior IT Reporter for Ars Technica. He covers the telecom industry, Federal Communications Commission rulemakings, broadband consumer affairs, court cases, and government regulation of the tech industry.
