HSI Undercover Agent Attends TCDA 'Art Club' Meeting at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Roseville; Debriefed With a Photo Array for Attendee Identification

Opening

On February 1, 2026, an HSI undercover agent — designated UCA 9843 — attended a group meeting sponsored by the Twin Cities Direct Action (TCDA) “Propaganda and Communications Team,” titled “Art Club,” held from 3:00 to 5:00 p.m. at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Roseville, Minnesota. This is the earliest-dated of the church operations in the Doc. 212 discovery set, predating both the Ann Arbor and St. John’s operations by more than two months, and it produced the most granular single-meeting surveillance record in the set: individual physical descriptions of roughly ten attendees, a debrief conducted the same evening, and a formal post-meeting photo-identification procedure.

The Report of Investigation’s accountability block:

• Composed by: HSI Special Agent Jacob Marquis
• Uploaded by: Special Agent Katherine Wespetal
• Approved by: Hakan Catalan, Supervisory Special Agent
• Date approved: March 18, 2026

CORRECTION 2026-09-16 — “Cam Kennedy” is a charged defendant, not a surviving pseudonym

Earlier versions of this entry treated “Cam Kennedy” as a self-described pseudonym that survived redaction and stated that no attendee was identified. That framing is superseded by two primary documents:

• The indictment (Doc. 1, US v. Sant, 0:26-cr-00115, filed June 11, 2026) names “CAMERON KENNEDY (3), a.k.a. Cam, a.k.a. Olive Knite, a.k.a. Knite” as a defendant in Count One (18 U.S.C. § 372 conspiracy). Caption verified by OCR 2026-09-16.
• The government’s consolidated discovery response (Doc. 227, filed Aug. 21, 2026) ties this meeting to him directly: at the Prince of Peace Lutheran Church meeting, “defendant Cameron Kennedy referred to himself as a revolutionary anarchist and discussed coordinating propaganda with effective direct action,” and “discussed operating a blockade on his street that stops ICE vehicles,” citing indictment overt acts 86 and 87 (ECF No. 1 ¶ 9).

So the one unredacted name in this ROI belongs to a charged defendant whom the government itself identifies as the speaker at this meeting. That likely explains why it was not redacted. Everything he is recorded as saying below remains the agent’s non-verbatim summary and the government’s allegation; none of it has been tested at trial, and he has pleaded not guilty.

Doc. 227 also records Kennedy speaking at an April 18, 2026 event and discussing a Seattle NPR interview about the “Breaking the ICE” tour (OA 242; ¶ 234) — the same tour whose April 8 Ann Arbor stop drew collateral HSI tasking. The Ann Arbor ROI records one male presenter, identified as Callum Robinet (defendant No. 4), so nothing places Kennedy at Zion Lutheran. See 2026-04-08–hsi-undercover-operation-zion-lutheran-church-ann-arbor.

What Happened

Tradecraft at the meeting itself. UCA 9843 entered through a side door, followed a hallway, and reached a meeting room that was the last door on the left. Attendees were required to turn off phone Bluetooth and switch devices to airplane mode; some placed phones in Faraday bags. UCA 9843 recalled roughly ten people present.

The debrief and its verbatim caveat. SAs James Cutbirth and Jacob Marquis debriefed UCA 9843 at approximately 5:39 p.m., seventeen minutes after the meeting ended at 5:00. The ROI states explicitly: “The summary is not intended to be a verbatim account of the interview and does not memorialize all statements made during the interview.” Everything below is filtered through that caveat.

Individuals described. Every other attendee UCA 9843 described to the debriefing agents is redacted in the filed document — physical description, pronouns, hair color, vehicle, and any inferred identity are blacked out line by line. The exception is “Cam Kennedy” — per the correction above, defendant Cameron Kennedy. The ROI describes him as a white male, roughly 160 pounds, brown hair, a self-proclaimed anarchist known to attend “Left Jab” — described in the ROI as “a leftist martial arts group that teaches classes on how to ‘unarrest’ and ‘swarm’ law enforcement in order to free individuals that have been taken into custody.” He discussed TCDA finances: approximately $5,000 raised for a January 23 blockade from about 100 donors, with the bulk of the money coming from 20-30 people; he is recorded as “the main person pushing for funds” and wanting “to stockpile materials to assist with other organizations.” He is also recorded describing the situation as “on the precipice of a revolution,” calling conservatives “the regime,” and saying his neighborhood street has an informal blockade that slows any vehicle attempting to pass, including ICE vehicles.

Topics discussed, per the ROI: communications strategy (including a comment, attributed to a redacted speaker, about the importance of reaching people “who are radicalized but don’t realize it yet”), financing via an “open collective” go-fund-style platform, and marketing via social media and text messaging. No specific “direct action” was discussed, per the report’s own account. Attendees agreed to bring two to three action items to a follow-up meeting on February 5, 2026, to establish TCDA’s stated purpose. Discussion also touched “doxing,” frustration with ICE agents’ individual conduct records, and an “ICE Agent of the Day” Instagram strategy that attendees applauded. TCDA members discussed “re-vetting” membership out of stated concern about infiltration — the same meeting an undercover federal agent was, at that moment, sitting inside.

The photo array. After the debrief, UCA 9843 was shown photographs labeled A through E, referenced in the case file as “1 February 2026 for a list of the pictures shown to UCA – Prince of Peace Roseville – Registration Plates,” and asked to identify attendees against them. UCA 9843 made identifications, redacted in the unsealed copy. An agent’s note specifies these photo sheets were the only materials shown during the debrief, and that a separate intelligence workup of vehicle registrations from the church parking lot was compiled and appended to the case file alongside them — meaning attendees’ license plates, not just their faces, were run and matched to the meeting.

Action items sent to attendees afterward (per the ROI, presumably captured because UCA 9843 was on the distribution list): review “open collective” and alternative fund-handling systems; share campaign ideas; share media connections and platform roles; set up a Proton email address. The debrief concluded at 6:08 p.m.

Why It Matters

A church parking lot’s registrations were matched to a photo-identification procedure — a heavier-weight investigative tool than the plate-logging alone seen at St. John’s (see 2026-04-14–hsi-surveillance-st-johns-church-st-paul-plate-collection). This is not passive collection; it is active attendee identification, conducted the same evening, using both an undercover witness and a photo array — closer to a lineup procedure than a surveillance log.

The earliest-dated Whipple Shield church operation in the discovery set — and a date that precedes the case that documents it. The ROI’s own case-header field states Project Whipple Shield (case MS02PR26MS0004) was opened February 11, 2026. This meeting occurred February 1, 2026 — ten days before that case-opening date. Either the surveillance was conducted under a different, unlisted case number and folded into Whipple Shield’s file after the fact, or the case-opened date on this particular ROI’s header is itself in error. This entry does not resolve which; it is flagged as an unexplained discrepancy in the primary record, not smoothed into either account. (Compare Doc. 212-12, where December 2025 activity folded into a Puppet Master ROI carries internal citations to a separate case, MS05DR26MS0004.)

The redaction pattern tracks charging status. The only individual left unredacted is a person the government later indicted and identifies by name in its own brief for this meeting. The couple UCA 9843 believed had arranged access to the church, and every other uncharged attendee, are redacted. The finding is not that one pseudonym slipped through; it is that uncharged attendees of a church meeting had their faces and license plates run and matched, and remain in the file.

What This Does NOT Establish

No attendee other than Cameron Kennedy is identified, and none is independently identified in this entry. The Kennedy identification rests on the government’s own filings (Doc. 1 caption; Doc. 227 citing OA 86-87), not on outside research. The $5,000 blockade-fund figure, donor counts, and all attributed statements are UCA 9843’s account as summarized by the debriefing agents, explicitly non-verbatim per the ROI’s own language, and should be written as “the agent’s report states,” not as direct quotation of what was said at the meeting. They are also allegations in a pending prosecution.

Open Questions

• The February 1 event date versus the February 11, 2026 case-opening date for MS02PR26MS0004 — sequencing not resolved in this entry; may indicate this ROI was folded in from an earlier or parallel investigative file.
• The identities behind the redacted attendee descriptions, including the couple UCA 9843 believed had arranged the church booking.
• Whether Prince of Peace Lutheran Church’s clergy have spoken publicly about this specific meeting, beyond Rev. Steve Sylvester’s general statement in the five-church reporting (see 2026-08-15–dhs-surveilled-five-midwest-churches-saylor-injunction-violation-university-baptist).
• Full contents of the photo array and which redacted individuals UCA 9843 identified from it.

Cross-References

• 2026-04-14–hsi-surveillance-st-johns-church-st-paul-plate-collection
• 2026-04-08–hsi-undercover-operation-zion-lutheran-church-ann-arbor
• 2026-08-15–dhs-surveilled-five-midwest-churches-saylor-injunction-violation-university-baptist
• 2026-08-13–operation-puppet-master-hsi-infiltrates-minnesota-anti-ice-community
• 2026-02-15–project-whipple-shield-hsi-financial-surveillance-minnesota-unions
• us-v-sant-0-26-cr-00115-doc-212-full-roi-set