A grand jury is seeking to compel Reddit to reveal the identity of a user who criticized ICE.

      On the night of January 7, 2026, ICE officer Jonathan Ross shot and killed Renee Good, a 37-year-old woman, in Minneapolis. Shortly thereafter, Ross was publicly identified; The Intercept revealed his identity and shared biographical information, which was subsequently reported by other news outlets. Users on Reddit engaged in discussions about the incident, the officer, and the agency, and one of these users is now under scrutiny from a federal grand jury.

      According to a subpoena obtained by The Intercept, federal prosecutors in Washington, DC, have ordered Reddit to present a grand jury and provide personal information, including the name, address, and phone number of a user who criticized Ross and shared biographical information about him that was already available in news reports. Reddit has until April 14 to comply with this request.

      This marks the government's second attempt to reveal the identity of the same user. In early March, ICE issued an administrative summons to Reddit under a provision of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of 1930, a nearly century-old law concerning customs duties, wildlife imports, forfeited alcohol, and cross-border trade. The user submitted a sworn statement asserting they were not involved in the matters the statute addresses. A federal court in Northern California agreed, leading the government to withdraw the summons around March 27.

      However, just four days later, the government returned with a new request. This time, it was made not by an ICE field agent but by a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in Washington, DC, where the U.S. Attorney’s office is headed by Jeanine Pirro, the former Fox News host and judge, who was confirmed by the Senate in a 50-to-45 vote in August 2025. The new subpoena changed the jurisdiction, broadened the range of requested data, and included a directive that prohibited Reddit from disclosing the existence of the subpoena.

      Grand jury proceedings are inherently secretive and not adversarial. Unlike civil court where the subject of an information request can argue their case before a neutral judge, there is no such opportunity in a grand jury setting. Matthew Kellegrew, an attorney at the Civil Liberties Defense Center representing the user, described the escalation as "disturbing," asserting that the First Amendment significantly raises the standard for government investigations that encroach upon constitutionally protected rights of speech, press, and association. Will Creeley, the legal director at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, was more direct, stating: "So far, the government hasn’t identified a single Reddit post that isn't protected by the First Amendment."

      Reportedly, Reddit informed the impacted user after the subpoena was received by the user's legal representatives. The company has an established history of contesting government data requests, but its transparency report reflects a more complex narrative. In the first half of 2025, Reddit noted receiving the highest number of requests in a single reporting period, totaling 1,179 requests from law enforcement globally, 66 percent of which came from U.S. agencies. User data was disclosed in 82 percent of cases.

      The grand jury subpoena exemplifies a larger campaign. The Department of Homeland Security has issued hundreds of administrative subpoenas to Google, Meta, Reddit, and Discord in recent months, seeking the identities of users who have reported on ICE activities, criticized government immigration policies, or participated in protests. Gizmodo reported that Reddit, Meta, and Google have voluntarily complied with some of these requests. In February 2026, the Electronic Frontier Foundation released an open letter to major tech companies urging them to resist what it called unjustified DHS subpoenas, cautioning that this tool, requiring no judicial oversight, has been shifted from its intended use in cases like child abductions to being used against political speech.

      What the Reddit user shared was not classified information; it was a summary of publicly accessible facts about an ICE officer whose actions received national attention, including their job title, hometown, and biographical information already published. The government has not publicly clarified what crime it suspects has been committed. In the context of a secret grand jury, this silence is, in some ways, the core of the process.