DHS Hunts Down 67-Year-Old U.S. Citizen Who Criticized Them in Email(newrepublic.com)
72 pointsby randycupertino12 hours ago7 comments
  • thegrim0005 hours ago
    Surely there's nothing in the rest of the email, that they chose not to share with us, that would explain the reaction to the email. Surely.
    • barbacoaan hour ago
      It's the new pattern you see from this kind of reporting. Innocuous beginning, omit the middle context, then mentioning the end reaction.

      "Young mathmatics professor buys cabin in Montana, then gets arrested by FBI!"

      "Austrian born artist wants to make Germany better, then the UK firebombs Dresden!"

    • bathtub3653 hours ago
      Do you have any actual information?
  • advisedwang11 hours ago
    Google use to crow about how it resisted dubious warrants and subpoenas. I guess that has gone out the window.
  • Sabinus7 hours ago
    If the email is as innocent as the article makes it out to be, then this is pretty scary stuff. The DHS Trump appointees are either extremely paranoid and incompetent or abusing government powers to intimidate citizens.
    • shawn_w7 hours ago
      My money's on "all of the above"
  • cucumber37328426 hours ago
    This whole administration is like watching the sort of petty politics HN assures me basically don't exist outside small towns play out at a state and federal level. Politicians flinging poo at each other, inter agency pettiness. Some guy writes an email and DHS's reactions is "who's this guy who thinks he's so smart, scrutinize him, maybe we can screw him" like a local enforcer who has no "real" power except to cause misery who got offended by someone in the facebook comments.
  • ck211 hours ago
    Basically anything goes with this administration, what's going on in the dark but will come out after 2029 will probably be outrageous, just imagine what he's got the CIA doing

    They just seized six-year-old state ballots, with an incorrect illegal warrant, outside statute of limitations, with the agents calling the President in the middle of the action

    By the way just a reminder they don't need any warrant at all to read any of your emails that are over six months old and you'll never know it happened, it's why the Clintons kept their email server in their basement because he signed that law and knew not to keep them remote

    • netsharc6 hours ago
      As if everything will be fine in 2029. Between Trump 48, President JD Vance, or a post-purge where the enablers of this regime actually faces accountability, the 3rd option is the least likely...
  • randycupertino12 hours ago
    > Later that day, Jon received an email from Google notifying him that an administrative subpoena had been sent to them from the Department of Homeland Security “compelling the release of information related to your Google Account.” Federal agencies can issue such subpoenas without an order from a judge or grand jury, and Google gave Jon, who withheld his last name to protect his family from the government, one week to challenge it.

    > Laws are supposed to restrict the use of administrative subpoenas, but DHS has used the tool against dissent protected under the First Amendment to the Constitution. Jon could not find who in the agency issued the subpoena, let alone a record of it to show an attorney.

    > Days later, DHS agents showed up at Jon’s door.

    > Both Google and Meta received a record number of subpoenas in the United States during the first half of 2025 as Trump’s second term began, with Google receiving 28,622, a 15 percent increase over the previous six months.

    • tmaly11 hours ago
      Google Craig DeLeeuw Robertson, this is not the first time.
      • quickthrowman6 hours ago
        It’s against federal law to threaten a public official. It’s a felony, actually. 18 USC 115.

        I’m not sure what this other guy wrote, but the guy you mentioned broke the law. If this 67 year old guy threatened federal agents in a similar way, he’s guilty of a crime as well.

        I have no opinion on whether this Craig was armed when the FBI tried to arrest him.

      • add-sub-mul-div11 hours ago
        > In September 2022, Robertson allegedly posted online, "The time is right for a presidential assassination or two. First Joe then Kamala!!!"[3] He also allegedly posted a picture of a rifle captioned, "My democrat eradicator!!!"[14] Robertson also allegedly threatened New York attorney general Letitia James and had "patriotic dreams" of shooting Governor of California Gavin Newsom with "my S&W M&P 9mm" and shooting US attorney general Merrick Garland "dead center in his forehead".[3][15][16] In November 2022, he indicated he had nine firearms including at least three rifles and intended to buy an additional three for "getting ready for the 2024 election cycle."

        Wow, there's something really wrong with this guy. This goes beyond "criticism" but I admit I don't know where the line falls before you consider a death threat to be worth taking action on.

        • theossuary11 hours ago
          It's honestly incredible to me that there are people who truly believe these two things are comparable:

          > Mr. Dernbach, don’t play Russian roulette with H’s life

          Verses posting images of an arsenal, writing they need to buy guns for the upcoming election, and also:

          > The time is right for a presidential assassination or two. First Joe then Kamala!!!

          One is clearly threatening murder towards public officials and showing themselves taking steps to enact their plan. The other is a concerned citizen exercising their first amendment right. I have to believe the people saying these are the same are bots, because the alternative is just so pathetic.

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