FBI Received Assurances on Using Fake Cell Towers to Hunt Producer Dan Lemon

Investigators also sought authorization to use an invasive surveillance tool known as cell-site simulators against Georgia journalist Georgia Fort and a Minnesota state Senate candidate.

US law enforcement agents obtained permission to use a controversial surveillance device capable of intercepting cellphone signals to find and arrest a 21-year-old college student who helped journalist Don Lemon cover an anti-ICE protest, court filings show.

The former student, Jerome Richardson, who has since graduated from Temple University, is one of 39 people charged with conspiring to violate the civil rights of worshipers and interfere with religious worship at Seitz Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, in January. Protesters said they targeted the church's Jan. 18 service because one of its pastors, David Eastwood, also led ICE's St. Paul field office. Journalists Georgia Fort and former CNN anchor Lemmon, who say they were there to cover the protests, are accused.

Twelve days after the protest, judges in two states began signing orders allowing deputies 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 one in Pennsylvania the next day. His lawyers wrote in a motion to suppress the tracking evidence that the goal was to "locate and arrest him."

Agents also searched the phones of Forte and Jamal Lundy, then a candidate for the Minnesota state Senate, for cell site simulator warrants. Separately, they sought warrants for a pen that could register phone numbers for Fort and a WIRED number traced to Lemon. It is unclear whether the judge granted any of these requests.

Records reviewed by WIRED do not indicate whether investigators actually deployed a cell site simulator to locate Richardson or whether judges approved plans targeting Fort and Lundy. In a letter filed with the court in July, Fort's attorneys said prosecutors "did not know" whether the surveillance programs were authorized or provided evidence.

Cell site simulators spoof cell towers to find the target phone. In doing so, they can also collect identifying information from any nearby mobile devices, including those belonging to people who are not suspected of a crime. This indiscriminate collection of devices has made them controversial among privacy advocates, who describe them as network surveillance tools.

The use of cell site simulators has long been hidden. FBI records released in 2023 revealed that police who borrowed the simulators had to agree to keep details of their use secret, even in court. Privacy advocates have long warned that the devices could be turned against protesters and journalists.

"Using an advanced surveillance capability like a cell site simulator against members of the free press to report stories that are unfavorable to the president is an egregious attack on the First Amendment," said Cooper Quintin, chief technology officer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a technology-focused civil liberties nonprofit. Quintin has spent years researching and developing tools to help people identify them. Using the EFF's detection software, WIRED found evidence that a cell site simulator was deployed near the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, though who ran it and for what purpose.

Attorneys for Lemon, Lundy and Fort did not respond to requests for comment. Attorneys for Richardson declined to comment on the case.

The previously unreported warrants are the product of a campaign of controversial investigative tactics used by federal agents in pursuit of individuals linked to the cities' church protests. According to court records, the Department of Homeland Security has requested phone and YouTube records from journalists under a customs authority that does not require prior judicial approval. Agents also sought records to identify everyone who was at the REI in Minneapolis-St. Bridge area in more than two years. Defense lawyers have identified 92 customs subpoenas and are challenging the government's authority to issue them.

cell site simulator warrants raise serious questions both about the accuracy of the information investigators gave judges in an attempt to get permission to use the surveillance tool, and about why they sought such intrusive surveillance to find Richardson in the first place.

Affidavits supporting applications to trace Richardson show alleged video of Forte, Lemon, Richardson and others "chanting. With a beater." Prosecutors have since admitted that Lemon and Forte did not chant. According to his lawyers, the government acknowledged that the false claim appeared in at least 15 affidavits.

DHS policy says cell site simulators are deployed only "in a fraction of cases where the capabilities are appropriate to achieve specific public safety objectives," but it's not clear what specific public safety reason would justify its use in this case. Two days before Richardson went to federal court in Philadelphia and voluntarily surrendered, a second simulator warrant was obtained to locate Richardson, then a senior at Temple University. He was released on bail in the afternoon.

The Justice Department responded to WIRED's request for comment, writing in an email that the department "speaks through its court filings." DHS declined to discuss the ongoing investigation or investigative methods, referring questions to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Minnesota, which did not respond to a request for comment.

The warrant was signed Jan. 31, the same day Richardson posted a video on YouTube saying he expected to be taken into federal custody "in the coming days," indicating he had no plans to flee. It's unclear whether the warrant predated the shooting, raising questions about why investigators sought such an interventionist tool to find someone who publicly predicted his arrest and prosecutors agreed to let him go free the day he surrendered.

While Richardson's motion to suppress seeks to suppress evidence obtained from phone tracking, it does not specify whether agents used the simulator or obtained evidence through either.

A former federal prosecutor who spent a decade working on counterterrorism cases says using a simulator to locate someone isn't necessarily unusual. But they called the government's tactics aggressive: "I don't see why it's necessary at all," according to court records they reviewed in Richardson's case. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak on the record

Richardson, a St. Paul native, led an NAACP chapter at age 16 and served as executive director of Minnesota Teen Activists, according to the fundraiser. He described his work for Lemon as handling logistics and his liaison with local contacts. He took the journalist to the cities church, where Lemon broadcast the protest live and interviewed the protesters and the church. Prosecutors allege that Richardson joined the chants and obstructed the rally.

Richardson defended his role in his video. "I was proud to support his work," he said of Lemon. "It's the price of being unapologetic about humanity and love for Christ."

The government's initial attempt to obtain an arrest warrant was met with resistance by the judges. A judge overturned five of the eight rulings, and the Justice Department reversed itself after an appeals court rejected a Justice Department bid to overturn the decision. Apply. In a case to the Court of Appeal, the chief justice wrote that two of the five "were not protesters at all, but a journalist and his producer" and that "there is no evidence of any criminal conduct." Prosecutors later issued a grand jury indictment on Jan. 29.

The way the government chose to arrest some of the defendants has also led to protests by defense lawyers. Lemon's lawyers say in court filings that prosecutors have rejected their offer to arrange for his surrender. Instead, agents arrested him shortly before midnight at a Beverly Hills hotel while covering the Grammy Awards. Fort's attorneys say officers arrested him at his home before allowing him to turn himself in.