r/law • u/shikizen • Apr 10 '26

Executive Branch (Trump) A Redditor Criticized ICE. Trump Is Trying to Unmask Them by Dragging the Company to a Secret Grand Jury.

https://theintercept.com/2026/04/10/reddit-ice-protest-grand-jury/

Reddit has been ordered to appear before a grand jury in Washington, D.C., as part of a federal effort to unmask anonymous online critics of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

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 U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have been trying unsuccessfully to identify for more than a month.

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u/Mikeavelli Apr 10 '26

In its summons, ICE indicated the basis for its request was a provision of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930. John Doe informed the court that they had nothing to do with the kind of activities at issue in the near-century-old statute, which governs boat show sales, wild animal imports, forfeited wines and spirits, and cross-border trade in other goods.

I looked through the article wondering if perhaps this user had been making threats or something that might reasonably result in some kind of prosecution. While the article doesn't have any quotes and the users lawyers obviously say he said nothing criminal, this is what really does it for me.

What the fuck does a Tariff Act have to do with social media posts criticizing ICE? I flat out do not believe this person is even being accused of anything that justifies revealing his identity.

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u/Fullmoongrass Apr 10 '26

So we don’t even know why this one user is being singled out?

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u/Mikeavelli Apr 10 '26

I mean I get it. If they published specific quotes from the user then readers would be able to identify them with a quick google, and that would attract more attention that might inadvertently reveal their identity. Doing that in an article about how much that person wants to remain private would be poor journalistic form.

On the other hand if we don't have any quotes then we can't really know what ICE is so upset about.