Operation Puppet Master - A Pilled Government’s Investigation (386)

August 20
1h 15m

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Episode Description

Travis takes Jake and Liv inside Operation Puppet Master, Homeland Security Investigations’ months-long effort to uncover the supposed command structure and funding behind Minnesota’s anti-ICE protests. Undercover agents entered meetings and Signal chats, tailed activists, and searched union and nonprofit finances. Reports released in the case against 15 activists reveal the bizarre amount of government resources poured into surveilling people in Minnesota, including one instance in which 21 agents spent two hours staking out a “de-arrest” training session that had already been canceled. The crew examines what happens when QAnon-style paranoia acquires federal badges, undercover agents, and subpoena power.

Sant et al Indictment
https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1446251/dl?inline

December 2025 Undercover-Agent Activity: ICEWatch, Upstander, Sunrise and Rapid Response
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.234416/gov.uscourts.mnd.234416.212.12.pdf

January 1–26 Undercover Activity Operation Puppet Master Version
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.234416/gov.uscourts.mnd.234416.212.25.pdf

February 1 TCDA “Art Club” Meeting and Fundraising Discussion
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.234416/gov.uscourts.mnd.234416.212.21.pdf

February 22 Loring Park Surveillance of the Canceled “De-Arrest” Training
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.234416/gov.uscourts.mnd.234416.212.15.pdf

March 28 Surveillance of Eventual Defendants at the No Kings Demonstration
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.234416/gov.uscourts.mnd.234416.212.23.pdf

April 14 Surveillance Outside a DAMN Meeting at St. John’s Church
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.234416/gov.uscourts.mnd.234416.212.17.pdf


January 31 Sunrise Movement Meeting at Minneapolis Public Library
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.234416/gov.uscourts.mnd.234416.212.11.pdf

February 2 “50501 Minnesota” Meeting at Augsburg Park Library
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.234416/gov.uscourts.mnd.234416.212.16.pdf

February 10 Virtual Panel: “ICE Brutality: Responding to State Violence and the Machinery of Fear”
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.234416/gov.uscourts.mnd.234416.212.13.pdf

March 9 Whipple Watch Training
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.234416/gov.uscourts.mnd.234416.212.20.pdf

March 15 Virtual DAMN Meeting
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.234416/gov.uscourts.mnd.234416.212.31.pdf

May 28 “Left Jab” Anti-Racist Boxing Class
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.234416/gov.uscourts.mnd.234416.212.19.pdf

Defendant’s Motion for Discovery
https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mnd.234416/gov.uscourts.mnd.234416.212.0.pdf


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Produced by Liv Agar & Corey Klotz. Theme by Nick Sena. Additional music by Pontus Berghe and Jake Rockatansky. Theme Vocals by THEY/LIVE (instagram.com/theyylivve / sptfy.com/QrDm). Cover Art by Pedro Correa: (pedrocorrea.com)

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