A Rochester man who received a warning from federal agents over a social media post critical of the government is now suing the government.
David Streever filed a lawsuit Monday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against national officials of the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, as well as the individual agents who tracked him down.
After the killings of Alex Pretti and Renae Good by federal immigration enforcement agents, Streever wrote to the head of ICE to denounce the agency's handling of the killings and to tell the agency head he would be as infamous as the Nazi believed to have been the key architect of the Holocaust. "You will never know peace," Streever wrote.
Five months later, two agents showed up at Streever's door. Streever and his young daughter were in Finland at the time. Agents left a letter with Streever's wife, an Episcopal priest. Warning, the letter said, "it is unlawful to threaten to assault, kidnap, and/or murder a federal official [...] with the intent to impede, intimidate, and/or interfere with the federal official’s duties or retaliate against a federal official due to the performance of their duties."
It is the same warning delivered to Paigelynn Gonyea of Syracuse, who was tracked down by ICE agents as she worked at a polling site on primary election day last month. She was accused of doxxing — publishing the personal location details — of a federal agent involved in one of the Minneapolis shootings in a social media post. She had merely mentioned his name, which had been published in news article.
The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) called the behavior of ICE outrageous and said Streever's letter is no threat and is Constitutionally-protected speech. It is representing Streever in his lawsuit.
“If someone is really threatening a government official, you don’t wait five months to act on it,” said FIRE Senior Attorney Adam Steinbaugh in a news release. “The fact that authorities didn’t respond immediately shows that David presented no threat. This pursuit is designed to intimidate lawful speech, pure and simple.”
