The Washington Post was out with a long piece yesterday detailing the recent use of the kind of Orwellian tactics we saw the Biden Administration use on innocent civilian political opponents, but in this particular case it was Trump’s Department of Homeland Security. And they were targeting an elderly man in Pennsylvania. Just for writing a simple, perfectly benign email to a career attorney, Joseph Dernbach, about a high profile immigration case he had an opinion on.
How can this be? I read and read and read.
The piece is entitled “Homeland Security is targeting Americans with this secretive legal weapon” and subtitled “In October, a retiree emailed a DHS attorney to urge mercy for an asylum seeker. Then DHS subpoenaed his Google account and sent investigators to his home.”
This poor guy. He was too spooked to give the Post his last name (but not so spooked that he wouldn’t talk to the Post, go figure); he’s simply known as “Jon.” Here’s the relevant section from the Post’s piece, including the entirety of Jon’s email to Joseph Dernbach:
He had just read about the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s case against an Afghan it was trying to deport. The immigrant, identified in The Washington Post’s Oct. 30 investigation as H, had begged federal officials to reconsider, telling them the Taliban would kill him if he was returned to Afghanistan.
“Unconscionable,” Jon thought as he found an email address online for the lead prosecutor, Joseph Dernbach, who was named in the story. Peering through metal-rimmed glasses, Jon opened Gmail on his computer monitor.
“Mr. Dernbach, don’t play Russian roulette with H’s life,” he wrote. “Err on the side of caution. There’s a reason the US government along with many other governments don’t recognise the Taliban. Apply principles of common sense and decency.”
That was it. In five minutes, Jon said, he finished the note, signed his first and last name, pressed send and hoped his plea would make a difference.
Now, of course we want sketchy Afghanis sent back to Afghanistan, as a general rule, but putting that aside, Jon’s email is the thing; it’s perfectly benign.
Evidently not to Joseph Dernbach, because things, as they say, escalated quickly:
Five hours and one minute later, Jon was watching TV with his wife when an email popped up in his inbox. He noticed it on his phone.
“Google,” the message read, “has received legal process from a Law Enforcement authority compelling the release of information related to your Google Account.”
Listed below was the type of legal process: “subpoena.” And below that, the authority: “Department of Homeland Security.”
That’s how it began. Soon would come a knock at the door by men with badges and, for Jon, the relentless feeling of being surveilled in a country where he never imagined he would be.
Jon eventually found out that the subpoena he got was not a judicial subpoena but an administrative subpoena and the Post spends quite a bit of time talking about the opaqueness and unfairness of them, as they should. The DHS agents came and went and ultimately nothing came of it. Still, I’m wondering, how could this happen? What the hell is a Trump Administration DHS doing????
Finally, finally, I figure it out. No thanks to The Washington Post.
Joseph Dernbach was hired in 2019. Under the Biden Administration. A quick Google search told me.
He’s a leftover. It took this jerk all of five hours to decide to issue an administrative subpoena over a perfectly benign email, terrorizing this poor elderly man and his elderly wife.
If, and that’s a big if, The Washington Post’s reporting is true, then Joseph Dernbach needs to go.