Feds Sought Cell-Site Simulator Warrants to Track Don Lemon's Producer
Original: Feds Got Warrants to Use Fake Cell Towers to Hunt Down Don Lemon’s Producer
Why This Matters
Surveillance of journalists using Stingrays sets a stark precedent for press freedom.
US agents obtained warrants to use Stingray devices to locate Jerome Richardson, 21, who helped produce Don Lemon's coverage of a Minnesota anti-ICE protest. Agents also applied to surveil journalist Georgia Fort and a state Senate candidate.
Federal investigators sought authorization to deploy cell-site simulators — devices that mimic cell towers to pinpoint phone locations — to find and arrest Jerome Richardson, a Temple University graduate who helped produce Don Lemon's coverage of a January protest at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. Richardson is among 39 people charged with conspiring to interfere with religious worship after protesters targeted a church service led by a pastor who also headed ICE's St. Paul field office.
Court filings show judges in Minnesota and Pennsylvania signed warrants authorizing Stingray use against Richardson's phone within 12 days of the January 18 protest. Separately, agents applied for similar warrants targeting journalist Georgia Fort and Jamael Lundy, then a Minnesota state Senate candidate, as well as pen register orders for Fort and a number linked to Lemon himself. Whether judges approved those applications — or whether any simulator was actually deployed — remains unclear. Fort's lawyers noted in a July court letter that prosecutors "did not know" if the surveillance had been authorized or produced evidence.
Cell-site simulators collect data from all nearby devices, not just the target's — a broad sweep that has made them deeply controversial. The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Cooper Quintin called targeting journalists with such tools "an appalling attack on the First Amendment." FBI agreements have long required police using its simulators to keep details secret, even in court proceedings.