Fact Check: NO Evidence Federal Agencies Raided Amish Pennsylvania Farm In January 2024 -- It Was Searched By State's Department Of Agriculture

PA Authorities

Was Amos Miller's farm in Pennsylvania's Amish country raided by federal authorities during the years of Kamala Harris's vice presidency? No, that's not true: The well-publicized "raid" within that time frame took place on January 4, 2024, and was conducted by state authorities. Lead Stories found no evidence that any federal agencies were at the scene when the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture executed the search of the farm which was related to two confirmed cases of illness in underage consumers believed to have been caused by raw milk from the farm.

The story appeared in a post (archived here) on X, formerly known as Twitter, on October 22, 2024. It said:

The Amish have chosen a side after the Kamala Harris Admin raided Amos Miller Organic Milk Farm

And that side is Freedom, Deregulation and Donald Trump ‼️ 🇺🇸

2020: 45-50K Amish registered to vote (video)
Now in 2024: 200K+ voter registrations.

This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:

(Source: X screenshot taken on Thu Oct 26 14:28:06 2024 UTC)

The claim about the farmer, who is Amish, resurfaced on social media as conservative groups intensified (archived here) their voter outreach to Amish communities in Pennsylvania in the last weeks of the 2024 U.S. presidential race.

On October 24, 2024, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture confirmed to Lead Stories via email that the agency "executed an administrative search warrant at Miller's Organic Farm in Bird in Hand, Pennsylvania" in early January 2024.

The complaint (archived here) filed by Attorney General Michelle Henry (archived here) "in collaboration with the state Department of Agriculture" reads:

... the Department executed an administrative search warrant at Miller's Organic Farm on January 4, 2024, following two confirmed cases of illness in underage consumers caused by the foodborne pathogen Shiga toxin producing E.coli and believed to be tied to Defendants'raw milk sales.

The January 4, 2024, search revealed an expansive operation that manufactures and sells a vast array of illegal food and dairy products throughout the United States, including raw milk and raw milk products that have since been tested and found to contain the Listeriamonocytogenes bacteria, which poses a significant health risk.

The case cited instances of illness in New York and Michigan.

Federal law prohibits interstate sales of raw milk (archived here) since 1987. Pennsylvania doesn't entirely ban such sales but requires a permit (archived here). Miller didn't have a license at the time of the search or ever before, the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture told Lead Stories on October 24, 2024, via email.

Lancaster Online (archived here) reported that law enforcement present at the scene were state police and published supporting photos.

Fox 43 (archived here) and Food Safety News (archived here), which also covered the news, said nothing about the purported involvement of federal agencies in the search.

Miller's legal trouble unfolded over the years and started long before Kamala Harris was sworn in as vice president on January 20, 2021 (archived here).

On December 14, 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention posted a press release (archived here) linking an outbreak of listeria to the raw milk from Miller's farm. By then, he had already been investigated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for two years, as the subsequent subpoena (archived here) filed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) reads. The FSIS fought to get access to inspect Miller's farm, which was granted.

Litigation continued throughout the years of Donald Trump's presidency.

On November 20, 2019, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania -- which had sued Miller on behalf of the FDA and FSIS -- announced (archived here) that the court "entered an injunction ordering Miller's Organic Farm (Miller's) of Bird-in-Hand, Pennsylvania, and its owner, Amos Miller, to cease violating federal food safety laws." That case concerned sales of "non-federally-inspected, misbranded meat and poultry products to nationwide consumers."

The detailed history of the litigation involving Miller's businesses can be found on the National Agricultural Law Center website (archived here).

When a similar claim circulated in 2022, Miller's attorney Steven Lafuente told the Daily Beast (archived here) that his client "wasn't raided" by U.S. marshals.

Other Lead Stories fact checks about the claims concerning the 2024 U.S. presidential election can be found here.