Right-wing podcaster Benny Johnson went to an ICE protest with top Trump administration officials and appeared to have one thing in mind: creating rage-bait content portraying protesters as “domestic terrorists.”
Now that content has landed him in a federal defamation lawsuit, MS NOW reports.
Two Illinois residents who were detained while protesting outside an immigration detention center near Chicago are suing the MAGA podcaster, accusing him of falsely portraying them as violent extremists who attacked federal officers.
Kyle Frankovich, a data scientist at Harvard University, and Maureen Foody, a contract court reporter, filed the lawsuit Friday in federal court in Illinois.
Their complaint says they were peacefully protesting outside the Broadview detention center when they were detained by federal agents. Johnson later featured them in videos and described them as “left-wing terrorists” who had attacked police and ICE officers.
The plaintiffs say that portrayal was false — and that Johnson knew it was false.
That distinction will now be for a court to sort out.
The lawsuit appears to be the first defamation case tied to the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown to target one of the MAGA influencers who have received special access to government officials and ICE operations.
Karianne Jones, an attorney representing Frankovich and Foody, told MS NOW that the lawsuit is about holding accountable people who “serve as a mouthpiece for the government.”
Johnson has transformed himself from a conservative media personality into one of the more visible online promoters of the Trump administration.
In 2025, he was given a special “new media” seat in the White House briefing room and was invited on ride-alongs with Department of Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.
On Oct. 3, 2025, Johnson accompanied then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem and former Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino to the Broadview ICE facility.
Broadview had become a flashpoint for protests over the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and conditions inside the detention center.
Johnson documented the confrontation for his millions of followers.
And according to the lawsuit, things quickly went from political commentary to something much more personal.
Frankovich and Foody were among the protesters outside the facility that day. They say they were standing in a designated “free speech” zone when federal agents began shoving and striking protesters and forcing some of them to the ground.
Frankovich said he had been coming to Broadview for weeks to support his community, handing out whistles, helping families and providing security.
Then Johnson showed up.
In videos posted to X, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Rumble, Johnson can be seen speaking to protesters while federal agents stood between him and the crowd.
“These are exactly the kind of people that we want to be pissing off … It’s your tears that keep us going,” Johnson said in one video, according to the complaint.
Then came the part that is at the center of the lawsuit.
Johnson showed footage of roughly 10 detained protesters, including Frankovich and Foody, lined up along a guardrail with their hands bound in zip ties.
He described them as “left-wing terrorists arrested for attacking police officers and ICE officers.”
Frankovich and Foody say that was simply false.
Johnson later posted on X that he had witnessed “dozens of Democrat domestic terrorists” being arrested for “VIOLENT ASSAULT” on federal law enforcement.
That post was viewed about 1.7 million times, according to the lawsuit.
Johnson posted at least seven times about his day at Broadview, generating millions of views collectively.
The plaintiffs argue that the videos were not journalism but political messaging masquerading as news.
Their lawsuit describes Johnson’s content as “political combat dressed up as news.”
Frankovich and Foody were detained for roughly eight hours and were not charged with a crime, according to the complaint.
Frankovich said he was shaken when he later saw Johnson’s posts — and the reaction they generated.
Some commenters allegedly identified him as an Antifa leader and attempted to track him down. The complaint includes comments calling for the detained protesters to be tortured, shot and killed.
Then the Department of Homeland Security got involved.
DHS used a photograph of Frankovich being detained in an ICE recruitment poster.
The poster featured his image in zip ties with the phrase “FAFO” — short for “fuck around and find out” — along with a warning that the government would not allow “violent activist” groups to attack law enforcement.
At the bottom was a link directing people to join ICE.
Frankovich says the experience of being detained was traumatic enough. Seeing his image subsequently used in government recruitment material made it worse.
“Being assaulted and detained in a hellhole was itself traumatizing,” he said. “Then, for several days later, to see myself used in propaganda to recruit additional ICE agents to continue to brutalize my community?”
“You shouldn’t get to lie about me,” he added.
Frankovich and Foody are seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
For Johnson, the lawsuit now puts a legal spotlight on something that has become increasingly common during the Trump administration: MAGA influencers getting unusually close access to government officials and turning that access into viral political content.
