FBI Director Kash Patel revealed Monday night that the bureau is investigating a Signal group chat suspected of endangering, or even doxxing, federal officers in Minneapolis. Members of the chat tracked ICE agents during immigration enforcement operations by sharing suspected federal vehicle details, license plate numbers, and locations, using the information to dispatch so-called “rapid responders” to interfere on the ground.
“The Signal chat group is information we collect from the public, because we repeatedly request that the public provide us with any information they have,” Patel told Hannity. On this type of specific investigation, what you do, generally speaking, is send out subpoenas, collect data, put people before grand juries, and find out who broke the law and if anyone incited violence. Remember, that’s the key here: we are not going after people or infringing on their freedom of speech to peacefully protest, and we are definitely not going after people for their Second Amendment right to bear arms. Only if you incite violence and/or threaten to do harm to law enforcement officials, or break the law in any other way, does it become an investigatory matter.”
“This Signal chat is something that we, the FBI, are looking at and spearheading,” he added.
Investigative journalist Cam Higby infiltrated and exposed the group chat, which reportedly was maxed out at 1,000 members and featured an ongoing call with roughly 50 participants. The interference in federal immigration enforcement was highly coordinated: members took scheduled “shifts” scanning for ICE and Border Patrol vehicles, while designated “plate checkers” worked to confirm and update a shared tracking database. Once identified, “commuters” were dispatched to follow the vehicles, some of which ultimately turned out not to be law enforcement at all, and confront or protest their presence.
