Jessica Mendoza (2:32)

What did these findings tell you?

Hannah Critchfield (2:34)

You know, they show that US Citizens are caught in the crosshairs of an aggressive government campaign to detain and demonize detractors, including by calling them terrorists, rioters and agitators. The Department of Homeland Security, which was created in 2002 to protect Americans, has turned its force against US citizen.

Jessica Mendoza (3:00)

Welcome to the Journal. Our show about money, business and power. I'm Jessica Mendoza. It's Monday, March 23rd. Coming up on the show, how the Department of Homeland Security is cracking down on American citizens.

Ryan (3:28)

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Jessica Mendoza (5:00)

To analyze the U.S. government's claims about assaults on federal immigration agents, the Wall Street Journal reviewed more than 100,000 posts on X posts made in the last year by accounts linked to government agencies and senior government officials.

Hannah Critchfield (5:15)

Each time the government identified a person on a post, we tracked that case through the legal system. So you know what charges were brought under what statute were those charges later modified? What happened to the person in the case?

Jessica Mendoza (5:30)

The Journal team also tracked videos made by witnesses and bystanders of the alleged assaults. You can find a link to the full visual investigation in our show. Notes One of the cases Hannah and her team looked at was that of Sydney Laurie Reed. Reed is a 44 year old veterinary assistant in D.C. and a U.S. citizen. In July, Reid went to a jail to witness an immigration enforcement action. Federal officers had gone there to arrest two migrant men and Reid said she felt a duty to document it.

Hannah Critchfield (6:04)

So she ends up going over there to record what's going on Essentially, she has her phone out and she is documenting. What's your name?

Jessica Mendoza (6:13)

Tell me your name.

Hannah Critchfield (6:15)

Tell me your.

Jessica Mendoza (6:16)

What you're hearing now is a mix of footage Reed recorded herself and body camera footage from law enforcement officials on the scene.

Hannah Critchfield (6:23)

So there's this handful of federal agents at the jail, and she's recording them, and she moves for a clearer view and an agent grabs her and pins her to a wall. Other federal agents come up to assist. There's ICE agents. There's also an FBI agent, and they arrest her.

Federal Agent (6:49)

Mind your own business.

Jessica Mendoza (6:49)

That's all you have to do.

Federal Agent (6:51)

Mind your own business.

Jessica Mendoza (6:53)

Reed was surrounded by several federal law enforcement officials. One of them was an FBI agent wearing a face covering and an FBI vest. Two others were ICE officers. Reed dressed in plain clothes, plaid shirts, and khaki pants. Reid was handcuffed, and she was told she was being arrested for interfering with her operation.

Federal Agent (7:13)

Interfering Correction enforcement.

Jessica Mendoza (7:15)

Although videos reviewed by Hannah and her team cast doubt on agents claims Reid was placed in a government vehicle and transferred to federal custody. Meanwhile, her phone kept recording audio.

Federal Agent (7:30)

This is a US Citizen. Ma', am, are you a US Citizen? Yep, she's a US Citizen. So I have her in my car. We got it.

Jessica Mendoza (7:36)

Like many American citizens who wind up in the crosshairs of dhs, she was accused of assault.

Hannah Critchfield (7:42)

One of the key aspects of what the government alleges is that she assaulted an FBI agent because the FBI agent has scrapes on her hand, and we see that those scrapes on her hands. You know, it's. It's something that happens in the process of putting handcuffs on Reid.

Jessica Mendoza (8:01)

The government later filed to charge Reid with felony assault of a federal official, a charge punishable with up to 20 years in prison.

Hannah Critchfield (8:09)

It's a serious federal charge, and it is being applied far more broadly now than it has been in recent history.

Jessica Mendoza (8:21)

Hannah and her team found that the push to charge more people for assaulting federal officers, like what happened to Reid, is an administration wide strategy. A Trump administration spokesperson says federal officers face daily threats. Attorney General Pam Bondi and her Department of Justice have pledged to prosecute these cases aggressively.

Hannah Critchfield (8:40)

You can run, you can't hide.

Indeed Sponsor (8:42)

We are coming after you federally. If you assault a police officer, if you rob.

Hannah Critchfield (8:48)

From the very start of Pam Bondi's tenure, you know, on her first day in office, she issues a flurry of memos, including one that encourages prosecutors to aggressively investigate any instances of violence against law enforcement or obstruction of law enforcement. So there's this early on messaging to prosecutors, and we also know that immigration agents were being given directives early on in immigration surges in Los Angeles. There's this high profile video of Gregory Bovino, who was then the head of Border Patrol, giving this direction to arrest anyone who touches you.

Federal Agent (9:32)

Arrest as many people that touch you

Hannah Critchfield (9:35)

as you want to.

Federal Agent (9:35)

Those are the general orders all the way to the top. Everybody fucking gets it if they touch you. You hear what I'm saying?

Hannah Critchfield (9:42)

And so there's sort of this pugnacious strategy sort of at the. At the ground level that's being encouraged.

Jessica Mendoza (9:49)

This strategy can even be heard in Reid's tape recorded while she was in the back of the government car. One of the two ICE officers in the car mentioned to his partner that he had spoken with the U.S. attorney's office earlier that day. The U.S. attorney's office told him they were, quote, on standby.

Federal Agent (10:06)

Awesome. I'm glad that they were on standby. Usao, like, if you need anything, let us know. Anybody interferes, assault, let us know. Get him on camera. We'll prosecute. I'm like, fuck, yeah.

Jessica Mendoza (10:19)

Beyond an increase in prosecutions, there's also been significant promotion of these alleged attacks on social media. How would you describe the online presence of dhs?

Hannah Critchfield (10:33)

Their ex posts and the social media presence is really combative. You know, they are often accompanied with a warning to the public. Don't be like this person. If you behave in this way, we will come for you. And they would post people's pictures, their full names, really trying to make an example out of these people.

Jessica Mendoza (10:58)

Many of these accusations, often from the handleshsgov and icegov, are posted online before anyone is convicted of a crime. This is what happened to Reid. A week after she was arrested, her mugshot went up on the official ICE account on X. The post says, quote, assault an officer or agent, get arrested. It's not rocket science.

Hannah Critchfield (11:22)

Then they say that Sydney Laurie Reed allegedly assaulted federal agents and that she was fighting for two alleged international gang members. And they post her photo as well online as well as her name and that she's based in D.C. a former

Jessica Mendoza (11:39)

DHS spokeswoman said all of the agency's statements go through a thorough review process. It was these posts that allowed Hannah and her team to figure out who exactly DHS was accusing of assault. They found that 279 people were accused online of assaulting a federal officer, and more than half, 64%, were U.S. citizens. Many of them are described as rioters, agitators, thugs, and terrorists.

Hannah Critchfield (12:09)

It was hard not to draw parallels to the way that government Officials were talking in the immediate aftermath of the killing of Renee Goode. And then after Alex Preddy was killed

Jessica Mendoza (12:24)

a few weeks later, Goode and Preddy were the US Citizens killed by DHS agents in Minnesota earlier this year. Here's Vice President J.D. vance talking about Goode's death.

Ryan (12:34)

I can believe that her death is a tragedy while also recognizing that it's a tragedy of her own making and a tragedy of the far left who has marshaled an entire movement, a lunatic fringe, against our law enforcement officers.

Jessica Mendoza (12:48)

And here's then DHS Secretary Kristi Noem on Alex Preddy.

Hannah Critchfield (12:52)

This individual who came with weapons and ammunition to stop a law enforcement operation of federal law enforcement officers, committed an act of domestic terrorism. That's the facts. It just felt that this was something we really wanted to look into. You know, how often are people being called deranged leftists as Good was called, or a person who tried to murder federal law enforcement like Preddy was called? And what is the impact of these kinds of public labels on everyday US Citizens?

Jessica Mendoza (13:28)

In the case of Renee Goode, she was in her car when she was killed. Hannah said drivers came up a lot in her team's investigation. They found that in posts on X federal government officials have accused 32 U.S. citizens of intentionally using their vehicles as weapons.

Hannah Critchfield (13:44)

DHS considers a vehicle when weaponized to be a deadly weapon. It justifies the use of force. And we saw again and again in videos and in these claims that the government was alleging that people were trying to ram them.

Jessica Mendoza (14:01)

The Wall Street Journal investigation found that of those 32 drivers, only one pleaded guilty to an assault charge, three had their cases dismissed and the rest were never charged. This came up again and again in Hannah's reporting. The Trump administration goes online and accuses a US Citizen of assault, but the cases don't hold up. That's after the.

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Ryan (15:08)

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Jessica Mendoza (15:42)

When Hannah and her team looked into the case of Sydney Laurie Reed, the D.C. woman you heard about earlier, they had a rare amount of audio and video footage available.

Federal Agent (15:52)

Can I get my phone that's on the ground? I don't care about your property right now. I do.

Jessica Mendoza (15:58)

I do.

Hannah Critchfield (15:59)

We'll get it. It'll come. When Reid is being arrested, she drops her phone, but the phone is still recording. So an agent gets that phone and places it into the same vehicle that she's riding in on her way to detention.

Federal Agent (16:15)

We're at the D.C. jail. We're at the D.C. jail. We have an agitator in custody for you.

Hannah Critchfield (16:19)

We got this incredible access to the way that agents were talking about Reid's incident in the immediate aftermath of her arrest. As she's handcuffed in the backseat of agents vehicles, and you hear that agents go back and forth about exactly how Reid had assaulted them. First it was a raised knee, then an elbow.

Federal Agent (16:43)

Yeah, it appeared that there was an elbow. That was when she was resisting, but she definitely interfered. So we have interfering, and I'm going to get it.

Hannah Critchfield (16:50)

Also shows how they talk to her. You can hear one of the ICE agents calling her a stupid female as he's talking to a colleague.

Federal Agent (16:58)

Hey, brother, you good? I have to return to 1D and process this stupid female now that I fucking don't want to process.

Jessica Mendoza (17:05)

Reed was held by federal authorities for roughly two days. She says she wasn't allowed to make a phone call during that time.

Hannah Critchfield (17:13)

In the aftermath of this arrest, prosecutors try to indict her, and that needs to be done through a grand jury. A grand jury will vote to approve an indictment. And in this case, they brought Reid's complaint before a grand jury, and the grand jury declined to indict her. Then they go back and do it again, and another grand jury declines to indict her. And then they go back and do it a third time, and another grand jury declines to indict her, which is pretty unheard of. I mean, the idea that three times they weren't able to obtain an indictment both shows the resistance from the public to charge her based on the evidence. But it also shows that the US Government was very determined to bring forth charges in this case.

Jessica Mendoza (18:10)

Prosecutors ultimately charged Reid with misdemeanor assault of an officer, a lesser offense that doesn't require going through a grand jury. Reid was acquitted of that misdemeanor charge at trial. The Wall Street Journal investigation found that in most cases where citizens were accused by the government, the outcome was similar to Reid's story. 181 citizens were accused by the government on x of attacking federal officers, but close to half of them were never even charged at all. As for the rest, we pored over

Hannah Critchfield (18:43)

court files, and we found that when people were charged with this, more often than not, those cases fell apart. Either they were acquitted or found not guilty at trial.

Jessica Mendoza (18:57)

There were a handful of cases where the government was successful in getting a conviction. Fifteen people mentioned in government posts pleaded guilty before going to trial. Ten of those people pleaded guilty for lesser offenses than what the government initially charged them with. Since Hannah and her team published their investigation, one person has been found guilty at trial of attempted murder of an officer who was assisting federal law enforcement. What has the DHS said about the fact that many of these cases don't bear out in court?

Hannah Critchfield (19:26)

We approached DHS about our investigation and our findings, and they said they're taking appropriate and constitutional measures to uphold the rule of law. They are protecting officers from dangerous rioters. You know, the White House has said, look, we're defending heroic law enforcement officers who are trying to keep American communities safe.

Jessica Mendoza (19:48)

When the courts, you know, decide that these folks are not guilty or the charges are dismissed, I mean, does the government go back online and kind of address that?

Hannah Critchfield (20:01)

We found that the government is silent after these cases resolve and the person is exonerated.

Jessica Mendoza (20:09)

Whether or not these accusations made their way to court, video has often played a big role in contradicting the government's case. Over and over again. Videos that Hanna's team reviewed showed interactions with immigration agents that cast doubt on the way that federal officials had initially talked about them.

Hannah Critchfield (20:28)

So oftentimes, protesters are called violent rioters, professional agitators, and they're accused of making physical contact in some way with agents. But sometimes we found that video footage, you know, showed that immigration agents would at times lay their hands on demonstrators first.

Jessica Mendoza (20:50)

In other words, the Wall Street Journal found that most of the assault allegations against American protesters posted on x were unsubstantiated. Even federal prosecutors themselves acknowledged that in some cases, the evidence to back up these charges wasn't there.

Hannah Critchfield (21:07)

We spoke to federal prosecutors across the nation, and they said that they were facing intense pressure to charge demonstrators, bystanders. Even if video evidence contradicts the statements that officers initially claim about what happened or in situations where they wouldn't normally pursue federal charges, they believed that it wouldn't rise to the level of prosecution.

Jessica Mendoza (21:44)

What is DHS and ICE's goal here? It doesn't sound like getting a conviction is ultimately it, because they were doing this regardless of whether, you know, the charges really went anywhere. So what is behind this push to crack down on the way that Americans act around immigration officers and authorities?

Hannah Critchfield (22:11)

Yeah, I mean, we shared our findings with the federal government and asked for comment. You know, they strongly said that, you know, this is about protecting federal law enforcement and. And that the people who they are accusing are rioters, not people who are exercising free speech. What our reporting shows is that we don't know exactly why the federal government is tweeting over a thousand times about assaults on federal officers. But by putting a bullseye on people who are accused of assault by the federal government publicly, it has the effect of chilling first Amendment expression. And that is something that we saw in our conversations with people who had been accused publicly by the federal government of assaulting federal officers, is that they are less likely to participate in protests and less likely to put themselves in situations where their name might be tracked. They're out there now whether or not they were convicted at trial.

Jessica Mendoza (23:27)

And what does this all tell you?

Hannah Critchfield (23:29)

It tells you that both in public messaging and in terms of the types of incidents that the federal government is trying to prosecute, there is a real pressure to crack down and send a message to people who the government views as perceived dissenters. Even if video contradicts what agents have initially claimed happened, even in cases where

Jessica Mendoza (23:59)

a person is exonerated, there can still be heavy repercussions. Things like costs for posting bail, securing defense attorneys, and taking days off from work to appear in court. And in more extreme cases, people are doxed online and face death threats. In Reid's case, the post on X with her name and image is still up, and it's gotten more than 35,000 views. Even though she was acquitted, she had to explain to her employer why she missed a shift when she was held in jail for two days. She's expressed reservations about air travel, worried that her name could be flagged. And she says she's been more hesitant about engaging in political speech.

Hannah Critchfield (24:39)

She said she's less likely to participate in protests or do things that she would normally do, even though she said, those are our rights as US Citizens and they're being stifled.

Jessica Mendoza (24:54)

On the day Reid was arrested, as she sat in the back of a government vehicle handcuffed, one of the agents riding in the car with her criticized, people interfering in police affairs should have

Federal Agent (25:05)

been home by now. No. People can't mind their own business.

Hannah Critchfield (25:11)

I mean, is that what makes America great?

Federal Agent (25:13)

No, it isn't.

Hannah Critchfield (25:15)

What does, then?

Federal Agent (25:19)

Removal criminals out of this country. That's what makes America great.

Jessica Mendoza (25:30)

That's all for today. Monday, March 23 the Journal is a co production of Spotify and the Wall Street Journal. Additional reporting in this episode by Belle Cushing, Emma Scott, Brenna T. Smith and Brian Whitten. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow.

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