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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