WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump and Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said the Trump administration is exploring prosecuting CNN for reporting on an iPhone app that alerts users to Immigrant and Customs Enforcement agents in their area.
“We’re working with the Department of Justice to see if we can prosecute them for that because what they’re doing is actively encouraging people to avoid law enforcement, operations,” Noem told reporters alongside Trump on July 1 as they toured a new detention center in the Florida Everglades known as “Alligator Alcatraz.”
The threat followed a CNN report detailing a phone app called ICEBlock that its creator, Joshua Aaron, said is designed to be an “early warning system” for users when ICE is operating nearby. The app currently has about 20,000 users, many who live in Los Angeles, the nation’s second most populous city and one of the hotbeds of Trump’s mass deportations of immigrants in the country illegally.
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The White House has accused CNN of promoting an app that encourages violence against law enforcement officials.
“We’re going to actually go after them and prosecute with the partnership of (Attorney General) Pam (Bondi) if we can, because what they are doing we believe is illegal,” Noem said.
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Trump then weighed in by doubling down on his threat last week to sue CNN and the New York Times over reporting on a preliminary intelligence report that found U.S. airstrikes on Iran nuclear sites weren’t as devastating to Iran’s nuclear program as Trump has portrayed.
“So they may very well be prosecuted for that,” Trump said, pivoting back to the CNN report on the app. “What they did there, we think, is totally illegal.”
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Trump has a long history of litigation against media outlets. It is unclear on what legal grounds the Justice Department would pursue charges against CNN for reporting on the existence of the app. Legal action by the Trump administration would raise obvious First Amendment issues over the freedom of press.
“This is an app that is publicly available to any iPhone user who wants to download it,” CNN said in a statement on the administration’s threat. “There is nothing illegal about reporting the existence of this or any other app, nor does any reporting constitute promotion or other endorsement of the app by CNN.”
Reach Joey Garrison on X @joeygarrison.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump: CNN could be prosecuted for reporting on ICE app
