The FBI spied on the private group chat of an immigrants rights group that was monitoring immigration court proceedings in New York City.
The Guardianreports that the bureau gained access to a “courtwatch” Signal group coordinating volunteers to attend proceedings at three immigration courts in the city. A joint report between the FBI and the New York Police Department from August quoted from the group chat and called them “anarchist violent extremist actors.”
That report was distributed to other law enforcement agencies around the country, and the FBI called it a warning about “extremist actors targeting law enforcement officers and federal facilities.” The Guardiangot the report after Property of the People, a nonprofit organization dedicated to government transparency, obtained it via public records requests…