U.S. Attorney requests information on visitors to anti-Trump website
The U.S. Attorney's Office in Washington, D.C. has subpoenaed records from a group that allegedly helped facilitate Trump inauguration protests.
The office has subpoenaed user records from the company DreamHost, which web-hosts #DisruptJ20, a group that allegedly assisted in planning protests against President Trump's inauguration in January. The subpoena is related to prosecutions of people arrested for the violence that occurred in Washington, D.C.
DreamHost, which provides website hosting and domain name registry, is fighting the subpoena and has posted it online. The subpoena asks DreamHost "to provide all information available to us about this website, its owner, and, more importantly, its visitors," their website reads.
The company argues that the subpoena is broad to the point of invading user privacy, as it would subsequently reveal the private data of more than a million users.
"That information could be used to identify any individuals who used this site to exercise and express political speech protected under the Constitution's First Amendment. That should be enough to set alarm bells off in anyone's mind," DreamHost's website explains.
The case is set for a hearing this Friday, CBS News confirmed.
A U.S. attorney official told CBS News that the office and the Department of Justice would not comment on DreamHost's blog post.
