WASHINGTON — Two Democratic lawmakers are pressing for a federal audit of what they describe as a systemic pattern by U.S. law enforcement agencies to coerce private companies into silence with boilerplate gag requests that carry no legal authority.
Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) sent a letter to Chief Justice John Roberts and the acting comptroller of the Government Accountability Office calling for a comprehensive review of the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, and their component agencies — including the DEA, ICE, and Homeland Security Investigations — over their use of non-disclosure language in subpoenas. The trigger for the complaint: a July clash between Harvard University and federal authorities.
On July 8, 2025, Harvard received three immigration subpoenas from ICE regarding international students, each containing boilerplate requests for silence. The very next day, DHS issued a press release celebrating the same enforcement action it had just directed Harvard to keep secret. That contradiction, the lawmakers argue, is emblematic of a broader abuse.
Federal law grants only courts the power to impose secrecy. Yet agencies routinely demand it without a court order.
These extra-legal gag requests carry no force of law, but the coercion is real. Customers and targets of government surveillance are left unaware that federal agents have accessed their personal data — precisely because the agencies told the companies holding that data not to say a word. The practice is institutionalized, not incidental.
ICE frequently includes boilerplate requests for indefinite silence in its administrative subpoenas, including customs summonses and immigration subpoenas. The DOJ, for its part, regularly instructs recipients of grand jury subpoenas not to disclose the government’s demands, with letters warning that disclosure “could seriously impede the investigation” and requesting silence for a period of 90 days. The letter asks the GAO to initiate the audit and urges the Supreme Court to address the courts’ role in preventing such abuses.
The lawmakers’ offices are in Washington, D.C., and Seattle. The letter’s full text has been made available online.
Wyden and Jayapal characterize the practice as decades-long abuses of authority by federal law enforcement agencies to coerce silence from subpoenaed private companies.
