Attorney for Minnesota anti-ICE protesters charged with conspiracy believes feds may have used informant

Federal officers arrested two more anti-ICE protesters Wednesday in the Twin Cities, with both going before a judge in St. Paul federal court hours later.

Wednesday's arrests were part of the 15 charged Tuesday with impeding the work of immigration agents during and after Operation Metro Surge.

One of the people arrested Tuesday is Erik Davis, professor and chair of Macalester College's religious studies department.

A judge rejected prosecutors' request that the defendants post a cash bail before being released. All are barred from contacting each other and from protesting on federal property.

The 94-page federal indictment mentions Davis at group meetings and messaging some of the other people charged.

"He's chair of his department, and he was, he was acting as, acting his conscience here," said defense attorney Jordan Kushner. "The only thing he's accused of in the indictment is participating in meetings."

Kushner believes the federal government may have had a plant inside some of the protest groups including the Direct Action Network and the Black Cat Workers Collective. Their Facebook logo features an image of the Minneapolis Police Third Precinct building burning in 2020 amid the unrest following George Floyd's murder.

"They probably had an informant or an undercover agent who probably recorded the conversations and recorded the private email, private messaging through Signal chats," Kushner said. "And you know, it's disturbing that the government is putting its resources into spying on political activists."

Kushner and other defense attorneys say the indictment has little detail of protesters actively carrying out violent acts. Constitutional law professor David Schultz, who has no ties to the case, agrees.

"These are the types of actions that might at best warrant misdemeanor prosecution, maybe in local court. But to charge at felony-level conspiracy to obstruct government action, at least on the face of it, looks like an overreach," Schultz said.

No future court dates have been set. There have previously been other protesters charged for their actions during and after Operation Metro Surge. Some of those cases have been dismissed, while others are still active

Macalester College declined WCCO's request for comment.