Patel to Antifa: Game On, Terrorists

Game on, indeed — and this time, the Department of Justice holds all the cards.

Yesterday, the DoJ announced the filing of its first criminal charges of terrorism against “Antifa-aligned anarchist extremists,” part of a crackdown on domestic terrorism on the Left. An Antifa cell had set up an ambush in July at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Texas, attempting to lure law enforcement out into a crossfire set up with snipers. This was no protest stunt, but a serious attempt to murder federal officers:

Late into the night of July 4, a group of roughly a dozen individuals began shooting fireworks and spray-painting cars and structures at the detention facility, prosecutors say. Around the same time two correctional officers at the facility began to approach the group, a local police officer arrived responding to 9-11 calls about the incident, court filings say.

Shortly after the officer got out of his vehicle, one of the members of the group opened fire from a line of trees across the street, shooting him in the neck, prosecutors say. The officer survived the wound.

Another member of the group began to fire at the officers and, after shooting 20 to 30 rounds, the group dispersed and fled the scene, court filings say.

Detectives later said they determined that both rifles used in the shooting were purchased by ex-Marine Benjamin Hanil Song, who has been charged with attempted murder of a federal officer. Fourteen people were charged in relation to the shooting, including some who prosecutors say tried to hide Song after the incident.

The new indictment unsealed yesterday explicitly charged two of the conspiracy for terrorism:

The Justice Department brought its first federal terrorism case in the Trump administration’s crackdown on Antifa Wednesday, alleging that two people connected to the left-wing ideology participated in a coordinated attack on a federal immigration detention facility.

Prosecutors accuse Zachary Evetts and Cameron Arnold, who also goes by the name Autumn Hill, of being members of an “Antifa Cell” that used vandalism and fireworks to draw law enforcement officers out of an immigration detention facility near Fort Worth, Texas, and into the sights of two shooters positioned in a line of trees across the street.

The New York Times spins this as Trump’s “focus on the Left,” but they admit this is nothing new in the prosecution of domestic terrorism. It fits the same form as the previous administration’s attempt to pursue alleged domestic terrorism on the Right:

The 12-page indictment accused Mr. Arnold and Mr. Evetts of providing material support to terrorists, and of attempted murder and firearms offenses after taking part in the armed assault on July 4 against the Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas. The indictment said that the two men were part of a group of at least 11 masked suspects clad in black who shot fireworks and ultimately rifles at the facility, striking a police officer working there in the neck before they fled into the darkness.

Even though antifa has not been designated as a terrorist organization, the material support statute has been used against other extremist groups — especially on the right — that were also not formally singled out as terrorists.

Like most Protection Racket Media, the Gray Lady tut-tuts the idea that Antifa exists in any sort of organized form, However, the NYT also notes that the indictment suggests that the FBI may well be gaining evidence to the contrary:

The use of the term “enterprise” suggested that the F.B.I. might have opened a powerful and sweeping form of inquiry into antifa known as an enterprise investigation, said Thomas E. Brzozowski, the former counsel for domestic terrorism in the Justice Department’s national security division. Enterprise investigations allow the federal authorities to deeply scrutinize the structure, finances, membership and goals of targeted groups or organizations.

Mr. Brzozowski expressed concern that the Trump administration was using a somewhat vague definition of antifa that offered no clear evidence of connections between targeted people or groups other than their leftist ideology. Given the potent nature of an enterprise investigation, he said, the inquiry could end up focusing not only on those accused of committing actual violence, but on others adjacent to them who believe in similar ideas but have not acted violently.

Gee … like parents who protest at school board meetings against woke policies? Pro-life demonstrators who got armed FBI raids at dawn over a sidewalk argument that local police dropped as a nothingburger? Traditional Catholics who prefer the Latin Mass? The NYT didn’t have any problems when the DoJ painted these groups as “domestic terrorists” and opened “powerful and sweeping forms of inquiry” into their activities, let alone dawn raids on their homes.

And none of them had any track record of violence, let alone the years-long street-violence campaign by Antifa cells.

FBI Director Kash Patel appeared yesterday on Fox Business to warn Antifa that the DoJ is not fooling around any longer. “This FBI is going to follow the money,” Patel warned, and will find and expose their network and their cells — as well as their supporters:

KASH PATEL: “For the first time, Antifa-aligned anarchist extremists have been hit with federal terrorism charges after a July 4th attack on an ICE facility in Texas.” pic.twitter.com/yXOwmz03Dl

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) October 17, 2025

It’s about time. This is exactly what I voted for. 

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