St. Paul, MN – Looking closely at court filings around the “Minnesota 15” prosecution has revealed vast patterns of surveillance by federal agents, in Minnesota and beyond. We took a closer look at the summer’s largest set of filings, 30 main exhibits and several subsequent ones, to map out just how undercover operations, facial recognition, pole cameras, and other tactics played out. The project gives a sharp illustration of the cutting edge of America’s modern, lavishly funded surveillance state.

We did an in-depth webinar-style recording going through all of these defense exhibits. Covering hundreds of pages of evidence, it’s around 100 minutes long. While it is an almost overwhelming level of detail, it is worth checking out to get a glimpse at both the breadth and the depth of how this campaign worked.

Watch the full report on Vimeo or YouTube.

The prosecution of the Minnesota 15 (United States v. Sant, et al) has been playing out through the summer — one of the more high-profile politicized court cases Minnesota has seen in years. Unicorn Riot has interviewed many defendants about their experiences getting raided.

ICE in Minnesota: 2025-2026

Kieran F. Knutson, the president of Communication Workers of America Local 7250, told Unicorn Riot that the surveillance which targeted his union’s finances was part of an effort to “map out the resistance to ICE”:

“In my opinion the federal investigations should be seen as both an attack on and an effort to map out the resistance to ICE in Minnesota including the trade unions.

The Feds have a broad understanding of the different facets of the resistance and they have used these investigations as a means to map out the specific organizations, influential organizers, and networks of solidarity and collaborative activity.

The release of documents shows that this is not limited to investigating incidents involving ICE agents and protesters but is expansive to include unions and community groups that sponsored and organized the January 23rd Day of Truth & Freedom with No Work, No School, and No Shopping, including their finances.

This investigation started concurrent with the launching of Operation Metro Surge revealing its purpose as a counter-insurgency operation to, in the words of Commander Greg Bovino, ‘pacify this place’.

The unions – as a part of the active resistance to the illegal and deadly ICE operation – are an important target for the Federal government.”

Kieran F. Knutson, President CWA Local 7250

Anti-Left Campaign Centered on Minnesota

Ali Winston in Wired pointed out that ICE is running one of the largest anti-left surveillance campaigns in U.S. history, and Minnesota is at the heart of it. By his count, 115 ICE-HSI agents were involved in the Minnesota 15 case, including several high-profile agents from other states. He also found a spinoff surveillance campaign in Chicago in April 2026.

As Winston noted, Unicorn Riot’s previous exposure of the confidential ICE-HSI Undercover Operations Handbook helps decode the concepts around their operation.

Attorneys for the Minnesota 15 filed documents showing that Operation Keyhole was a “certified undercover” (CUC) operation. On September 9, this forced Minnesota U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen to disclose Keyhole has been in effect since late 2008. “77 separate criminal investigations” were approved under Keyhole.

As of June 2026, five investigations including Whipple Shield were being supplied under Keyhole, according to Rosen. The point of including Operation Whipple Shield and Puppet Master in Keyhole was to enable “the use of CUC Keyhole funds to provide investigative support, such as funding the deployment of personnel and the acquisition of necessary equipment,” according to Rosen.

Icepick Data Leak Reveals Surveillance Tool Access for ‘Minnesota 15’ Agents

The recently leaked Icepick data on Homeland Security agents and employees includes a group “# VSP-Whipple” with 38 members. Another apparent HSI investigator based at the Whipple building, Timothy Koupal, is listed in a group called “HSI-Keyhole_Access”.

Kroupal also is in two significant groups, “GOV-PRD-HSI-PenLink” and “GOV-NP-HSI-PenLink”. Penlink is a powerful telecom surveillance tool. Spire Capital Partners, the owner of Penlink, has assembled a domestic surveillance empire. It also owns Cobwebs Technologies, which was used to target protesters domestically, UR found in previous investigations.

Katherine Wespetal, a Minnesota-based HSI criminal investigator named in many Minnesota 15 documents, is also listed in the Icepick data as a member of many groups including VSP Penlink Users.

DHS Facial Recognition Software Used Against Minnesota 15 [Aug. 2026]

Documents

All “Docket No.” entries are part of the United States v. Sant case in federal court.

• Minnesota 15 discovery exhibits (August documents)
• Courtlistener docket, United States v. Sant et al
• SEIU Grand Jury subpoena response – Ali Winston, 6/10/2026. Docket No. 244. Bates No. 47878-47979.
• Docket No. 263, US Attorney filing on CUC Keyhole – 9/9/2026
• HSI Project Whipple Shield file 236, Report on Emmett Doyle warrant, June 16, 2026. Docket No. 297-4
• Kane County Illinois Sheriffs Office FOIA – Ali Winston, 10/15/2026
• HSI Project Whipple Shield file 126 – Ali Winston, 4/7/2026. Bates No. 2753-2766)
• Fincen info sharing – Ali Winston
• FedWire subpoena responses – Ali Winston, 4/21/2026. Bates No. 35229-35230.

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