>>randyc+(OP)
> 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.

>>randyc+i
Google Craig DeLeeuw Robertson, this is not the first time.

>>tmaly+q8
> 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.

>>randyc+(OP)
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

>>add-su+na
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.

>>randyc+(OP)
Google use to crow about how it resisted dubious warrants and subpoenas. I guess that has gone out the window.

>>randyc+(OP)
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.

>>Sabinu+qZ
My money's on "all of the above"

>>ck2+Kd
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...

>>randyc+(OP)
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.

>>tmaly+q8
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.

>>randyc+(OP)
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.

>>thegri+Xk1
Do you have any actual information?

>>thegri+Xk1
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!"

>>Sabinu+qZ
If this is what you make of the current atmosphere, I'd say that you're severely underestimating it. In fact, the entire US seems to be in denial and sleep walking into a disaster. Everything that has happened so far was predictable at least six months in advance. But people seem to miss it because of the 'that won't happen to us' attitude. I'm not going post alarming warnings anymore. Just study history in detail. Everything happening today is eerily similar to several dark chapters in history - except with the added precision lethality of modern information warfare.

One more thing. Trump isn't your biggest problem. He's just a very visible symptom of a much deeper festering issue. The people who surround him actually far exceed his penchant for preplanned retribution. They follow the same playbook that many foreign leaders employ with him to get their wishes - satisfy his craving for validation.

>>netsha+e71
Exactly! People seem to believe that this is a problem caused by a handful of individuals at the maximum. If nothing else, dangerous precedents have already been set. The bigger picture is much complicated and scarier!

>>thegri+Xk1
I'd hope that even a WaPo journalist would ask those questions and demand to view the evidence. It sounds like there should be a lot of things available to confirm the story.

>>randyc+(OP)
If I was a resident of PA I would be asking my congressman to investigate.

>>Sabinu+qZ
The article includes (some?) of it:

> “Mr. Dernbach, don’t play Russian roulette with H’s life,” Jon wrote from his gmail account. “Err on the side of caution. There’s a reason the US government along with many other governments don’t recognise the Taliban. Apply principles of common sense and decency.”

That seems an extremely reasonable email/tone. In fact, this is basically a model of what our civics classes told us we should do.

>>thegri+Xk1
Or not?

It's hardly hard to believe that the government would persecute critics. That has happened even before the current administration. It certainly in line with other behaviour we've seen from this admin.