Following reports the Homeland Security Department, potentially along with other federal agencies, conducted electronic surveillance of protesters’ cellphones in Portland, a group of Oregon lawmakers is demanding answers from the agency’s top official.
Oregon Democrats Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley and Reps. Earl Blumenauer and Suzanne Bonamici wrote to Chad Wolf, the embattled acting DHS secretary, Thursday. The letter asked four questions based on a report by The Nation’s Ken Klippenstein alleging DHS and potentially other federal agencies tapped Portland protesters’ phones.
Since the extrajudicial killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in May, protesters against police violence and systemic racism have taken to the streets in cities and towns across the United States. Portland became an unlikely protest hub over the summer.
Klippenstein’s report, based largely on conversations with anonymous current and former DHS officials, alleges DHS, the Justice Department and potentially other agencies sent officials to Portland who extracted information from cellphones by copying the device’s unique identifier to another device, enabling officials to intercept phone communications between protesters.
“Congress has enacted strict legal protections which require government agencies to obtain the approval of an independent judge before searching Americans’ devices and surveilling their communications—absent an emergency,” the lawmakers’ letter reads. “That is to prevent the government from suppressing legitimate free speech protected by the First Amendment and violating Americans’ right to privacy, which is protected by the Fourth Amendm ..
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