Feds Got Warrants to Use Fake Cell Towers to Hunt Down Don Lemon’s Producer

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US law enforcement agents obtained authorization to use a controversial surveillance device capable of intercepting cell phone signals to find and arrest a 21-year-old college student who helped produce journalist Don Lemon’s coverage of an anti-ICE protest, court filings show.

法庭文件显示，美国执法人员获得了使用一种有争议的监控设备的授权，该设备能够拦截手机信号，旨在定位并逮捕一名21岁的大学生。这名学生曾协助制作记者唐·莱蒙（Don Lemon）关于一场反移民及海关执法局（ICE）抗议活动的报道。

The former student, Jerome Richardson, who has since graduated from Temple University, is among 39 people charged with conspiring to violate worshippers’ civil rights and interfering with religious worship at Cities Church in St. Paul, Minnesota, in January. Protesters said they targeted the church’s January 18 service because one of its pastors, David Easterwood, also led ICE’s St. Paul field office. Those charged include journalists Georgia Fort and Lemon, a former CNN host, who say they were there to cover the demonstration.

这名前学生杰罗姆·理查森（Jerome Richardson）现已从天普大学毕业，他是1月份在明尼苏达州圣保罗市城市教堂（Cities Church）被指控共谋侵犯礼拜者民权及干扰宗教礼拜的39人之一。抗议者称，他们针对该教堂1月18日的礼拜活动，是因为其牧师之一大卫·伊斯特伍德（David Easterwood）同时领导着ICE圣保罗外勤办公室。被指控者包括记者乔治亚·福特（Georgia Fort）和前CNN主持人莱蒙，他们表示当时在现场是为了报道此次示威活动。

Twelve days after the protest, judges in two states began signing warrants authorizing agents to use so-called cell-site simulators, commonly known as Stingrays or IMSI catchers, to target Richardson’s phone: one in Minnesota on January 30 and another in Pennsylvania the next day. The purpose, his lawyers wrote in a motion seeking to exclude the tracking evidence, was “locating and arresting him.”

抗议活动发生12天后，两个州的法官开始签署搜查令，授权特工使用所谓的“蜂窝基站模拟器”（通常被称为“黄貂鱼”或IMSI捕获器）来锁定理查森的手机：一份于1月30日在明尼苏达州签署，另一份于次日在宾夕法尼亚州签署。他的律师在寻求排除追踪证据的动议中写道，其目的是“定位并逮捕他”。

Agents also applied for cell-site simulator warrants targeting the phones of Fort and Jamael Lundy, then a Minnesota State Senate candidate. They separately sought pen register orders, which can log the numbers a phone contacts, for Fort and a number WIRED traced to Lemon. It’s unclear whether a judge approved any of those applications.

特工还申请了针对福特和当时明尼苏达州参议院候选人贾梅尔·伦迪（Jamael Lundy）手机的基站模拟器搜查令。他们还分别申请了“拨号记录器”令（可记录手机联系过的号码），对象是福特以及一个被《连线》（WIRED）追踪到属于莱蒙的号码。目前尚不清楚法官是否批准了这些申请。

The records reviewed by WIRED do not establish whether investigators actually deployed a cell-site simulator to locate Richardson or whether judges approved the applications targeting Fort and Lundy. In a July letter filed in court, Fort’s lawyers said prosecutors “did not know” whether the surveillance applications had been authorized or had yielded evidence.

《连线》查阅的记录并未证实调查人员是否实际部署了基站模拟器来定位理查森，也未证实法官是否批准了针对福特和伦迪的申请。在7月份提交给法庭的一封信中，福特的律师表示，检察官“不知道”这些监控申请是否已获得授权或是否产生了证据。

Cell-site simulators impersonate cell phone towers to locate a target’s phone. In doing so, they can also collect identifying information from any nearby cellular device, including those belonging to people who aren’t suspected of a crime. That indiscriminate collection has made the devices controversial among privacy advocates, who describe them as dragnet surveillance tools.

基站模拟器通过冒充手机信号塔来定位目标手机。在此过程中，它们还可以收集附近任何蜂窝设备（包括非犯罪嫌疑人的设备）的识别信息。这种无差别的收集方式使该设备在隐私倡导者中引发了争议，他们将其描述为“搜捕式”监控工具。

The use of cell-site simulators has long been shrouded in secrecy. FBI records released in 2023 showed that police borrowing its simulators had to agree to keep details of their use secret, even in court. Privacy advocates have long warned that the devices could be turned against protesters and journalists.

基站模拟器的使用长期以来一直笼罩在秘密之中。2023年公布的联邦调查局（FBI）记录显示，借用其模拟器的警察必须同意对使用细节保密，即使在法庭上也必须如此。隐私倡导者长期以来一直警告称，这些设备可能会被用来对付抗议者和记者。

“Using an advanced surveillance capability such as a cell-site simulator against members of the free press for reporting stories that are unfavorable to the president is an appalling attack on the First Amendment,” says Cooper Quintin, senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a tech-focused civil liberties nonprofit. Quintin has spent years researching the devices and developing tools to help people detect them. Using EFF’s detection software, WIRED found evidence suggesting a cell-site simulator was deployed near the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, though who operated it and for what purpose remain unknown.

“利用基站模拟器这种先进的监控能力来对付自由媒体成员，仅仅因为他们报道了对总统不利的故事，这是对第一修正案令人震惊的攻击，”电子前沿基金会（EFF，一家专注于技术的公民自由非营利组织）的高级技术专家库珀·昆廷（Cooper Quintin）表示。昆廷多年来一直致力于研究这些设备并开发帮助人们检测它们的工具。利用EFF的检测软件，《连线》发现了证据，表明在2024年芝加哥民主党全国代表大会附近部署了基站模拟器，但具体由谁操作以及目的为何尚不得而知。

Attorneys for Lemon, Lundy, and Fort did not respond to requests for comment. Richardson’s attorneys declined to comment on the record.

莱蒙、伦迪和福特的律师没有回应置评请求。理查森的律师拒绝发表公开评论。

The previously unreported warrants are a product of a campaign of contentious investigative tactics waged by federal agents in pursuit of people connected to the protest at Cities Church. According to court records, the Department of Homeland Security demanded journalists’ telephone and YouTube records under a customs authority that requires no prior judicial approval. Agents also sought records identifying everyone who had purchased a particular beanie at REI in the Minneapolis–St. Paul area over a period of more than two years. Defense attorneys have identified 92 customs summonses and are challenging the government’s authority to issue them.

这些此前未被报道的搜查令，是联邦特工为追查与城市教堂抗议活动有关的人员而采取的一系列有争议调查手段的产物。根据法庭记录，国土安全部（DHS）根据一项无需事先司法批准的海关授权，要求获取记者的电话和YouTube记录。特工还寻求获取在两年多时间里，在明尼阿波利斯-圣保罗地区的REI商店购买过特定针织帽的所有人的身份记录。辩护律师已确认了92份海关传票，并正在挑战政府签发这些传票的权力。

The cell-site simulator warrants raise serious questions about both the accuracy of the information investigators presented to judges in their effort to obtain authorization for surveillance tool’s use, as well as why they sought such intrusive tracking to find Richardson in the first place.

基站模拟器搜查令引发了严重质疑：一是调查人员在申请监控工具使用授权时向法官提供的信息是否准确；二是他们最初为何要寻求如此具有侵入性的追踪手段来寻找理查森。

The affidavits supporting the applications to track Richardson claimed video showed Fort, Lemon, Richardson, and others “chanting with agitators.” Prosecutors have since conceded that Lemon and Fort did not chant. According to her lawyers, the government acknowledged that the false claim appeared in at least 15 warrant affidavits.

支持追踪理查森申请的宣誓书声称，视频显示福特、莱蒙、理查森和其他人“与煽动者一起高呼口号”。检察官此后承认，莱蒙和福特并没有高呼口号。据其律师称，政府承认这一虚假陈述至少出现在15份搜查令宣誓书中。

DHS policy says cell-site simulators are deployed only “in the fraction of cases in which the capability is best suited to achieve specific public safety objectives,” but it’s unclear what specific public safety reason justified its use in this case. Investigators obtained a second simulator warrant to locate Richardson, then a senior at Temple University, two days before he walked up to a federal courthouse in Philadelphia and voluntarily surrendered. He was released on bond that afternoon.

国土安全部的政策规定，基站模拟器仅在“最适合实现特定公共安全目标的极少数案件中”部署，但目前尚不清楚本案中使用了该设备的具体公共安全理由是什么。在理查森（当时是天普大学的大四学生）走进费城联邦法院自首的前两天，调查人员获得了第二份定位他的模拟器搜查令。他于当天下午获准保释。

The Justice Department responded to WIRED’s request for comment by writing in an email that the department “speaks through its court filings.” DHS declined to discuss ongoing investigations or investigative methods and referred questions to the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Minnesota, which did not respond to a request for comment.

司法部在回复《连线》置评请求的电子邮件中表示，该部门“通过法庭文件表达立场”。国土安全部拒绝讨论正在进行的调查或调查方法，并将问题转交给明尼阿波利斯联邦检察官办公室，后者未回应置评请求。

The warrant was signed January 31, the same day Richardson posted a YouTube video saying he expected to enter federal custody “in the coming days,” suggesting he had no intention of fleeing. It is unclear whether the warrant preceded the video, leaving questions about why investigators sought such an intrusive tool to find someone who was publicly anticipating his arrest and whom prosecutors agreed to release the day he surrendered.

搜查令于1月31日签署，当天理查森发布了一段YouTube视频，称他预计“在未来几天内”会被联邦拘留，这表明他无意潜逃。目前尚不清楚搜查令是否在视频发布之前签署，这引发了疑问：为什么调查人员要使用如此具有侵入性的工具来寻找一个公开预料到自己会被捕，且检察官在其自首当天就同意释放的人。