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Are you protecting your neighbors? FBI director wants to probe your chats



On Monday, FBI Director Kash Patel said he had launched an investigation of
Signal chats used by Minnesota families in response to a social media thread
from a right-wing influencer. The chats have popped up in response to killings
initiated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement after President Donald Trump
deployed them.




 



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In an interview, Patel told serial plagiarist and conservative podcaster Benny
Johnson that the FBI would be probing chats on the Signal app after a
conspiratorial thread on X by right-wing influencer Cam Higby went viral.
Johnson has a long history of dishonest “reporting” and has been promoted by
the Trump administration, an approach which includes access to high level
officials like Patel.

“As soon as Higby put that post out, I opened an investigation on it,” Patel
told Johnson.

“We immediately opened up that investigation because that sort of Signal chat
being coordinated with individuals, not just locally in Minnesota, but maybe
even around the country, if that leads to a break in the federal statute or a
violation of some law, then we are going to arrest people. You cannot create a
scenario that illegally entraps and puts law enforcement in harm's way.”

Higby’s thread was posted on Saturday and has over 20 million views on the
social media platform owned by Trump donor and conspiracy theorist Elon Musk.
Higby boasts in the thread that he “infiltrated” the Minneapolis-based Signal
chat and contains screenshots of posters warning one another about ICE
sightings and operations in the city.

In one post flagged by Higby he notes that a woman posted about a possible
sighting of ICE while walking her dog.

Minnesotans have developed ad hoc networks in response to ICE’s invasion of
the state. Many of the people using Signal chats are ordinary citizens,
including parents who are attempting to protect their children and neighbors.

In an interview published in early January, a Minnesota father identified as
“Greg” told NBC, “Every morning I feel like I’m forced with the choice of ‘Do I
try to do patrol to protect my daughter and her preschool or do I come to my
son’s kindergarten to do patrol here?’”





 



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Agents of ICE have killed two civilians in Minnesota and wounded many others
as part of the deployment ordered by Trump, so the fear of residents is not
abstract—it is a very real problem and ongoing threat to the public at large.

Patel’s investigation is further evidence of how badly the right has lost the
battle to define what is happening in Minnesota and around the country as ICE
and other agencies execute Trump’s mass deportation policy. While the
administration insists it is fighting against crime, the reality is families
are being terrorized and individuals harassed and assaulted based on their race.

Patel launching an official investigation based on right-wing misinformation
is part of a Trump administration pattern. The targeting of Minnesota came
about after a right-wing YouTuber caught the attention of Trump and other
influential Republicans by posting videos about purported fraud by the state’s
Somali immigrant population. Soon after, Trump began making racist remarks
about the residents and deployed ICE.

The decision to investigate family group chats once again highlights the fact
that Trump chose Patel to lead the FBI because he kissed up to Trump, not
because he is an expert in law enforcement.

Patel’s time at the FBI has been marked by lurching from one mess to
another—and now he’s spying on moms and dads simply trying to protect their way
of life.



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