US News Outlet Sues Trump Admin Over Refusal to Release 'Secret List of Activists'

https://www.commondreams.org/news/intercept-foia-lawsuit-dhs

US News Outlet Sues Trump Admin Over Refusal to Release ‘Secret List of Activists’

“The government is not allowed to selectively hide information about its actions that impact protected First Amendment activity,” said a member of the legal team representing The Intercept in its legal challenge.

BRETT WILKINS
Jun 24, 2026

The progressive US media outlet The Intercept filed a lawsuit on Wednesday seeking to compel the Trump administration to hand over documents related to claims by federal officials of a secret database used to track protesters and others dubiously deemed “domestic terrorists.”

The Intercept is asking the US District Court for the Southern District of New York to force the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to release material sought via a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request it filed on February 23.

“It’s not illegal to monitor the activity of immigration agents inside your community,” Intercept editor-in-chief Ben Muessig said on Wednesday. “What is illegal is the US government’s secret list of activists—and its refusal to turn over information about that database to the American public.”

The Intercept’s FOIA request came amid mounting evidence that, “by using photos, video, license plates, hotel check-in information, and more to create a database of lawful protestors, the government may be taking concerning action affecting the rights of those exercising their First Amendment rights,” as plaintiff’s counsel Democracy Forward noted in a statement announcing the lawsuit. The Intercept’s complaint cites a video posted on social media on January 23 that shows a federal immigration agent telling a legal observer in Maine during a protest against the deadly US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) anti-immigrant crackdown that “we have a nice little database, and now you’re considered a domestic terrorist.”

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