Bondi May Indict ICEBlock Operator After He Sues Her

WASHINGTON - Dec. 8, 2025 - PRLog -- The creator and operator of ICEBlock, a popular app being widely utilized to coordinate interference with immigration enforcement efforts, and condemned in the strongest possible language by many in the administration as a criminal violation, has just sued U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons, and White House Border Czar Tom Homan over Apple's removal of the app.

One possible - if not quite probable - response to this filing would be for Bondi to act upon a formal criminal complaint which has been filed against Joshua Aaron, as the developer and continuing operator of the ICEBlock (https://www.iceblock.app/)
app, for violation of 18 U.S. Code § 111 (https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/111).

After all, as most effective lawyers know, the best defense is often a strong offense; a tactic which has been successfully used many times by the Trump administration, notes public interest law professor John Banzhaf.

In addition to knocking the app's developer back on his heels, a criminal indictment would undercut the major argument in Aaron's civil law suit; that ICEBlock is protected speech, akin to navigation apps like Waze which report speed traps, emphasizing its non-violent, time-limited location sharing for safety and awareness.

But, as a detailed legal analysis by Professor Banzhaf proved, the app is not protected by the Constitution as free speech, and is not at all like Waze.

Indeed, notes Banzhaf, the situation is more akin to the criminal prosecution of the publisher of a book on how to get away with murder.  Although books - unlike apps - have long been held to constitute Constitutionally protected speech, a unanimous three-judge federal U.S. Court of Appeals did not hesitate to find criminal aiding and abetting; thereby providing strong precedent for an indictment as to which the standards are much lower.
Just as with the book, Aaron's intent to aid and abet criminal conduct with his app is easily established by its very title - the criminal intent to BLOCK ICC.

Both Bondi, and Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, have before them a formal criminal complaint against Aaron, charging him with criminal aiding and abetting in violation of 18 U.S. Code § 111 (https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/111).

This criminal statute provides that any person who "impedes, intimidates, or interferes" with any federal official "while engaged in or on account of the performance of official duties" is guilty of a federal felony; and that clearly includes those who attempt to storm ICE facilities, block or throw stones at ICE vehicles, and assault or even shoot at ICE officials, argues the law professor.

http://banzhaf.net/   jbanzhaf3ATgmail.com   @profbanzhaf