Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell did not respond to multiple press inquiries from The Tennessee Star after Metro Nashville was accused of publicly leaking the names of U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Homeland Security Investigations officials who participated in the recent immigration enforcement operation that resulted in nearly 200 arrests of illegal immigrants.
O’Connell was accused of leaking the names on Wednesday by U.S. Representative Andy Ogles (R-TN-05), who noted that Metro Nashville published names of DHS and HSI officials to a Nashville data portal affiliated with the Metro Office of New Americans.
“The information is posted on an official Nashville government website — fully accessible to the public,” wrote O’Connell in a Wednesday post to X. “MS-13 and other transnational gangs could easily use this as intel for their operations.”
He added, “It also includes details on how local officers are coordinating with federal agents, putting agents in serious danger and exposing local law enforcement to unnecessary scrutiny and targeting.”
Ogles did not state which laws O’Connell allegedly violated, but 18 U.S.C. 119 explicitly prohibits sharing private information about DHS officials if it could “be used to threaten, intimidate, or facilitate the commission of a crime of violence” against such officials or their family members, while 18 U.S.C. 1512 makes it illegal to interfere with an active investigation.
The congressman, in another post to X, later accused O’Connell of “handing intel to gangs like MS-13, who can now track down and potentially target these officers.”
Nashville’s woketivist mayor is DOXXING federal law enforcement.
By publicly posting the names of DHS and ICE agents, he’s handing intel to gangs like MS-13, who can now track down and potentially target these officers.
Democrats need to stop helping the cartels—and start… pic.twitter.com/zn7RC0wkhC
— Rep. Andy Ogles (@RepOgles) May 28, 2025
Though the mayor has neglected to respond to The Star, a spokesman for O’Connell told Fox 17 Nashville on Wednesday night that the data portal has existed for years, and that the “sole purpose of that part” of the order “is transparency.”
Despite the claim by O’Connell’s spokesman, the outlet noted that data in the portal only dates to July 2024. The mayor’s office claimed this is because there were no interactions between city officials and federal immigration officials from January 2024 to July 2024.
As the spokesman claimed the data was uploaded for transparency purposes, O’Connell’s office appeared to be quietly deleting names from the data, as they were removed in a new version of the database uploaded on Wednesday.
The Star has obtained this previous version, which contains the full names of at least two federal immigration officials, as well as the first name and other identifiable information belonging to a third. All of this information was removed from the May 28 version of the document.
Ogles announced on Monday that the House Homeland Security and Judiciary committees will open probes into O’Connell over his actions taken in response to the THP and ICE operation, which included both the signing of an executive order that mandates Metro Nashville employees report contacts with federal immigration officials to the mayor and his Office of New Americans, and the announcement of the “Belonging Fund,” which provides financial support to immigrants, and was seeded with money from nonprofits that received millions in federal COVID-19 stimulus money from Metro Nashville.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Mayor Freddie O’Connell” by Mayor Freddie O’Connell.
Freddie…..hear that knock on your door, guess who.
Until the doxxing angle emerged, it was easy to think O’Connell and likely Beyn and a few other council members and Chief Drake, would escape criminal charges. If this is true–and they are presumed innocent until convicted, they are looking at charges and lengthy federal sentences.
Hey Freddie ! It’s too late to take that back and redact something after you have already released those names. He is clueless about public safety and immigration law.