Government documents disclosed on Thursday, August 13, 2026, in the federal case against 15 people charged in June with impeding federal agents during the Minneapolis immigration crackdown, describe a Homeland Security Investigations program called Operation Puppet Master. The documents were released in connection with a motion by defense lawyer Kevin Riach seeking more of the material the government collected, the Associated Press reported. According to the AP, the program “was aimed at what officials called a network of conspirators helping 'violent opportunists and agitators.'” Minnesota Public Radio reported that Riach alleges it launched four days after Alex Pretti was shot and killed by federal agents.
The AP reported that the documents describe agents “secretly infiltrating meetings, monitoring activist chat groups and using license plate numbers to compile names of people who attended gatherings,” in meetings at churches, schools and parks that “were often simply discussions of constitutionally protected protests.” A slide created by Homeland Security's investigative branch, titled “The Conspiracy,” shows 18 organizations, “from a small Minneapolis bicycle repair collective to the AFL-CIO,” and the government obtained years of financial records for groups including the Sunrise Movement, the Service Employees International Union and the Communications Workers of America. Of one Sunrise Movement meeting, the undercover agent reported: “During the Action meeting, it was made clear that the Sunrise Movement organization focused on 'peaceful' protests.”
The Minnesota Reformer reported that agents used administrative subpoenas, issued by the agency rather than a judge, to obtain the unions' financial records; collected license plate numbers at a meeting at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Roseville to compile a dossier of attendees' names, photos, addresses, vehicle registrations, family and employment information; and used Clearview AI facial recognition to build photo dossiers, including of many people who were not charged. A Homeland Security statement said HSI “doesn't comment on the existence or status of on-going investigations or investigative methods,” the AP reported. All 15 defendants have pleaded not guilty (see The DOJ Indicts 15 Minnesotans on Conspiracy Charges Over Anti-ICE Protests, Citing 'Antifa Ties').
Update (October 28, 2026): Discovery in the Minnesota 15 case shows the operation was larger than first known, WIRED reported on October 28, citing court records, internal documents and emails it viewed. According to WIRED, Operation Puppet Master and a related investigation, Project Whipple Shield, were authorized under National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 and funded through Operation Keyhole, an HSI undercover program in place since December 2008; when last renewed in June 2026, Keyhole was funding six active investigations, including Whipple Shield, which began in February. Court records show 119 HSI agents worked on the case, WIRED reported, among them at least 11 undercover agents who joined trainings, marches and community meetings and got into activist Signal chats.
WIRED also reported that agents gathered 15 terabytes of infiltrated Signal chats, used footage from Customs and Border Protection Reaper drones, photographed and ran the license plates of cars at meeting sites, surveilled activist conferences as far away as Seattle, Chicago and New York City, and on March 31, 2026 sought financial records on 29 subjects through the Treasury Department's Patriot Act 314(a) program. It said agents obtained phone records of several journalists who covered the Minneapolis surge through an administrative summons meant for customs and tax violations, as the Guardian first reported. No other outlet has independently confirmed these specifics.
The historical comparisons are the experts' own. Retired FBI agent Mike German said, “These are exactly the kind of intelligence activities J. Edgar Hoover adopted to suppress the Civil Rights and anti-war movements in the 1960s.” Defense attorney Kevin Riach called it “the new COINTELPRO,” and former DHS attorney Spencer Reynolds said, “This operation does not seem in any way limited to Minnesota.”