Attorney General Pam Bondi is publicly posting mugshots and names of protesters arrested in Minneapolis—a move that directly violates Department of Justice rules and amounts to a federal intimidation campaign against Americans exercising their First Amendment rights.

WHAT’S GOING ON: Bondi took to Twitter on Wednesday to share photos and names of 16 people arrested for allegedly “assaulting, resisting, or impeding federal law enforcement agents.” Her ominous warning: “We expect more arrests to come.”

Here’s the thing: DOJ policy explicitly prohibits releasing mugshots of people charged with federal crimes unless it serves a “legitimate law enforcement function.” Bondi’s posts served no such purpose. They were designed to do one thing: scare people out of protesting.

And let’s be clear—these protesters have only been arrested, not convicted. Meanwhile, the public still doesn’t know the names of the federal agents who shot and killed Alex Pretti.

THE DETAILS: Among those Bondi plastered across social media was Nasra Ahmed, a 23-year-old U.S. citizen who says she was wrongly detained by ICE for two days, called a racial slur by a federal agent, and suffered a concussion after officers pushed her to the ground.

This escalation comes as immigration agents have repeatedly failed to provide judges with sufficient evidence that demonstrators have actually committed crimes. Former FBI agents have watched ICE officers arrest people who appear to simply be yelling at federal officers—you know, the thing the First Amendment protects.

BUT BUT BUT: Federal agents keep claiming protesters are “assaulting” them. But there’s a pattern here. Last year, when ICE pursued felony assault charges against anti-ICE protesters in Los Angeles, the cases fell apart because of inaccurate and misleading testimonies from law enforcement officers. These agencies have a documented history of stretching the definition of “assault” to mean “said something I didn’t like.”

WHY IT MATTERS: This isn’t law enforcement. It’s state-sanctioned harassment. The nation’s top law enforcement official is using her platform to name and shame American citizens for protesting—before they’ve even had their day in court. She’s treating the First Amendment like a suggestion rather than a constitutional right.

The message from the Trump administration couldn’t be clearer: protest, and we’ll make sure everyone knows your name and face. That’s not justice. That’s the playbook of an authoritarian regime trying to crush dissent before it spreads.