Federal agents obtained court approval to use cell-site simulators—devices that impersonate cell towers—to locate Jerome Richardson, a former Temple University student who helped produce Don Lemon's coverage of an anti-ICE protest. The warrants, signed in Minnesota and Pennsylvania in January, were part of a broader investigation into a protest at Cities Church in St. Paul.
The devices collect identifying information from any nearby phone, not just the target's, which privacy advocates describe as dragnet surveillance. The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Cooper Quintin called the use against press members "an appalling attack on the First Amendment." It remains unclear whether the simulators were actually deployed.
The warrants also targeted other journalists and a state senate candidate. Prosecutors later conceded that affidavits falsely claimed Lemon and Fort were chanting with agitators, a claim repeated in at least 15 warrant affidavits. The single source, WIRED, reports these details from court filings; no other source was provided for comparison.