A Minneapolis man arrested this week faces federal charges tied to alleged online doxing and threats during a crackdown on Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Minnesota, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Thursday.
Federal prosecutors said Kyle Wagner, 37, used his Instagram account to publish what they described as personal information about a “pro-ICE individual,” including a phone number, birth month and year, and a suburban Detroit address. The complaint also says Wagner later admitted that he doxed the victim’s parents’ house. Prosecutors said Wagner was arrested Thursday.
The complaint further describes posts in which prosecutors said Wagner threatened immigration officers. In one alleged video posted last month, prosecutors said Wagner delivered an obscenity-laden rant and told viewers, “I’ve already bled for this city, I’ve already fought for this city, this is nothing new, we’re ready this time,” before saying he was “coming for” ICE. The complaint also alleges Wagner urged physical confrontation in another post, saying: “Anywhere we have an opportunity to get our hands on them, we need to put our hands on them.”
According to the criminal complaint, Wagner was charged with violating cyberstalking and interstate communications laws. Court records in Detroit did not list an attorney who could speak on Wagner’s behalf. A federal prosecutor did not immediately respond to a request for comment about why the case was filed in Michigan rather than Minnesota, though prosecutors said the alleged doxing was the only Michigan connection listed in the complaint.
In a statement, Attorney General Pamela Bondi alleged that Wagner doxed and threatened law enforcement officers, claimed an affiliation with antifa, and “encouraged bloodshed in the streets.” At the White House on Thursday, press secretary Karoline Leavitt held up Wagner’s photo during the daily briefing and said such conduct by “left-wing agitators” would not go unpunished.
Leavitt said, “And if people are illegally obstructing our federal law enforcement operations, if they are targeting, doxing, harassing and vilifying ICE agents, they are going to be held accountable like this individual here who, again, is a self-proclaimed member of antifa. He is a domestic terrorist, and he will be held accountable in the United States,” according to the remarks reported by the White House briefing transcript. The administration’s rhetoric also included President Donald Trump’s earlier announcement that he would designate antifa a “major terrorist organization.”
The case emerged as the federal government adjusted its posture in Minnesota. When border czar Tom Homan announced Wednesday that about 700 federal officers deployed to Minnesota would be withdrawn immediately, he said a larger pullout would happen only after there’s more cooperation and protesters stop interfering with federal personnel. Prosecutors said Wagner repeatedly posted on Facebook and Instagram encouraging followers to “forcibly confront, assault, impede, oppose, and resist federal officers,” and referred to ICE officers as the “gestapo” and “murderers.”
The U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota has faced courtroom pressure in recent weeks as prosecutors confronted a surge in cases and in related departures from office. In a recent filing to a federal appeals court, Trump’s chief federal prosecutor for Minnesota, Dan Rosen, said the office faced a “flood of new litigation” and was struggling to keep up, while his division that handles civil cases was down 50%. Rosen wrote that the office had canceled other civil enforcement work and was “operating in a reactive mode,” with attorneys appearing daily for hearings on contempt motions, deadlines set on short notice, and paralegals working overtime.
The Associated Press reported that the criminal complaint was filed Feb. 3 and unsealed Thursday. It also said the story was corrected to reflect that Wagner was charged with cyberstalking and interstate communications violations, not with threatening to kill ICE agents, and to correct an earlier reference to Wagner as Weber.