Publisher: Mother Jones
Relevant To: Protest safety / anti-repression resources
Verification Status: Verified
Notes: Mother Jones blocked automated access; content corroborated via Truthout’s republication and additional Center Square/Brennan Center reporting. FBI used Cellebrite (Israeli phone-forensics firm) and GrayKey to secretly extract data from the phones of Shailynn Bray-Waters and a dozen+ other protesters at a June 11, 2025 anti-ICE demonstration in Spokane, WA. One protester whose phone was extracted, Thalia Ramirez, was later indicted in the “Spokane 9” federal conspiracy case; the “Spokane 3” were convicted at trial. Every other protester whose phone was extracted had misdemeanor charges dismissed. CDT policy counsel Tom Bowman: mere proximity to another person can justify invasive phone searches under conspiracy theories. Then-acting US Attorney Richard Barker resigned rather than pursue conspiracy charges he found excessive. Directly relevant to the protest-safety/anti-repression research thread — concrete example of phone-extraction risk at protests.