DOJ Charges 15 MN Antifa Super-Soldiers For Being Very Very Dangerous And Bad To ICE Goons
If they just say 'violence' again and again, that turns free speech into a 'riot.'
The Justice Department on Tuesday announced the indictment of 15 people from Minnesota for allegedly conspiring to commit horrendous crimes against DHS goons during this year’s protests against Donald Trump’s ethnic cleansing operations in the Twin Cities. The 94-page indictment claims the 15 members of “Direct Action Minnesota,” which has the charming acronym DAMN, are scary Antifa Super-Soldiers who conspired to prevent “the enforcement of federal immigration law by force, intimidation and threats” and other bad things, but a lot of what the feds claim is criminal action sure looks like free speech and organizing, which aren’t crimes.
Specifically, the 15 are all charged with “Conspiracy to Impede or Injure a Federal Officer,” which doesn’t necessarily mean any federal officers were injured. Several are charged with making threats or stalking, too, but how well the charges will hold up is anyone’s guess.
We have to offer a tip of the Wonkette leather kitten hat to CBS News affiliate WCCO for its ballsily skeptical reporting on the indictment. It’s a bit of a wonder that the local affiliate’s report is on the CBS News website without having been Bari Weisswashed. The story points out right in its lede that while US Attorney Daniel Rosen said at a presser yesterday that the 15 people stood accused of conspiring to “violently oppose immigration law enforcement,” Rosen “failed to describe a single example of injuries to federal agents when repeatedly questioned.” Way to go, WCCO!
The DOJ is, in characteristically Trumpian rhetoric, insisting that the Minneapolis 15 are being prosecuted only for their actions but not their speech, although the agency also insists that the goal of the anti-ICE protests in Minneapolis and St. Paul was “violent in nature.” Funny, though, the DOJ’s own press release about the arrests sure focuses a lot on scary-sounding stuff the defendants said, and doesn’t bother splitting hairs about trivial things like the First Amendment.
(Acting) Attorney General Todd Blanche insisted that the 15 “engaged in an unrelenting campaign of harassment and violence targeting federal and local law enforcement,” although the press release and the indictment are very short on any actual instances of “violence.” And Head DHS Goon Markwayne Mullin claimed the “arrests of these rioters is a win for law and order,” although none of the “rioters” appear to have actually participated in a riot. In Trump’s America, simply opposing the mass deportations makes you a rioter, sitting there reading this. I’m a rioter too!
To be sure, there is definitely some MAYHEM AND AFFRAY to speak of. One of the people arrested is accused of knocking an ICE agent’s notebook out of his hand, and also of kicking his “government-issued vehicle,” leaving a truck-murdering dent.
That poor defenseless pickup was clearly in fear for its life. It and the agent’s notebook seem to be the only identified “victims” of this wide-ranging conspiracy to do violence. Also, another of the Super-Soldiers, Kyle Wagner, allegedly “doxxed” a federal agent, though the press release is very short on detail. Maybe it’s detailed in the indictment, but the DOJ document isn’t a searchable PDF, just an image file.
A third defendant allegedly “brake checked” and “side swiped” an officer’s vehicle, but a photo of her supposedly “ramming her Honda Civic” into the agent’s vehicle shows only a completely intact Honda Civic.
Odd how there’s no post-collision photo of the violently rammed ICE vehicle or the smashed Civic. Just trust them, it happened that way. Violently.
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As Jonathan Larsen points out at The Fucking News, much of the indictment is sloppily written, with nonsense like one defendant’s attempt to “prevent officers from discharging the duties of their officers,” which … what? Similarly, another line says the sneaky antifa groups sought to “identify and harass federal immigration and law enforcement officers in order to harass and prevent officers from performing their official duties.” One mustn’t harass officers in an attempt to harass them.
We’re also told, in both documents, that DAMN “trains its members in the use of shields against law enforcement,” and everyone knows what devastating weapons shields can be. The press release even includes a photo of shield-wielding Super-Soldiers standing in the road with their shields on March 1, but it’s a very VIOLENT form of standing there in the road.
And unlike the nonviolent January 6 thugs who may yet be paid by taxpayers for nonviolently trying to beat Capitol Police to death, there’s zero suggestion that DAMN’s shields were used as weapons. But they coulda been, even though they weren’t. In fact, I should probably be arrested right now because I might someday throw my keyboard at a cop. My own words convict me.
The press release also details other very violent free speech that the conspirators allegedly used, like how they maintained an online list of ICE vehicles with the codename “defrost,” and another list of all the active license plates being used on government vehicles, with the violent code name “Hot dishes.” We hope you too are horrified by that obvious call to commit either arson or casserole.
In yet another attempt to claim that protected speech is a conspiracy to commit violence, the press release shows the Facebook profile image for the “Black Cat Worker’s Collective,” which features a drawing of the Minneapolis Police precinct building that was burned down — with the help of rightwing “Boogaloo Boys” hoping to start a race war — during the 2020 protests. Come see the violence in the … um, little drawing and cheeky “Welcome to Minneapolis” message.
The press release and indictment also say that online statements by Kyle Wagner are very, very bad, because he called for violent revolution and disparaged nonviolent protest as insufficient to bring change, which is not polite but is one hundred percent protected by the First Amendment.
In one video, Wagner “admitted to being Antifa” as indicated by his hoodie that said “I’m Antifa!” He also cussed a lot, which is not a crime, saying things like “it’s time to suit up. Boots on the ground,” followed by the name of an intersection. Wagner went on (we have decensored the DOJ release, which says “f******” instead of “fucking”)”
“Okay, no, not talking about peaceful protests anymore. We’re not talking about having polite conversations anymore…This is exactly what I said was going to fucking come when we didn’t fucking go march on fucking Whipple with guns. Sorry but welcome to America 2026 where the Second Amendment is the only thing that’s going to keep you fucking protected from literal fucking Nazi gun men that are killing innocent people in the street with impunity. This is not a fucking joke. There’s nothing fun to chant about it. Get your fucking guns and stop these fucking people.”
It’s really going to be difficult for the government to prove to a court that Wagner’s comments which generally endorse violence actually cross the constitutional line into being a “true threat” of violence, which is really a very high fucking bar. We are not a lawyer, but that mention of the Holy Second Amendment can probably be spun as a call to carry arms for self-defense, not to commit assaults.
Still, at the presser Tuesday, Rosen insisted that for all the failed DOJ attempts to pin federal charges on people for protesting ICE, this time it’s gonna go great. He said he doesn’t think any of the the cases that have been dropped or tossed out by judges have “failed in any way,” and told reporters, “Read the indictment and you’ll understand the magnitude of this case. You watch how this case plays out, you watch how the evidence plays out and the evidence will prove it all out.”
Yeah, the magnitude of this case is that there’s a dented pickup, some mean words about violence, and a conspiracy to talk on apps about where ICE agents were. Some “conspiracy”!
Also, in the last big ICE case to be dismissed for rampant prosecutorial misconduct, the former “Broadview Six” defendants have filed a motion requesting the appointment of a special counsel to investigate the Chicago US Attorney's Office for criminal contempt in its sloppy, malevolent, almost-certainly illegal investigation. We look forward to watching how that plays out!
OPEN THREAD!
[CBS News / DHS press release / Motion for Special Prosecutor in US v. Rabbitt et al]
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I can't have actually coined "Bari Weisswashing," can I? Nahhhh.
UPDATE: didn't find it by googling, but it's been all over Bluesky for months, so once again I am not as clever as I thought.
https://bsky.app/search?q=bari+weisswash
On Wednesday mornings I roller skate at the old people skate (18 and older, mostly older people, a couple youngs do show up.) There's a guy there that skates super fast, just whips around the rink like Apolo Ohno. When I first saw him I cursed him under my breath, it feels reckless to be zipping in & out between people with whom bone breakage is extra hard to recover from, and everyone else!
Well now this guy has become a huge cheerleader of mine.
As I work to build strength and struggle with fucked up knees, very slowly improving, 2 steps forward, 1 step back.
Each week he tells me how much he thinks I am improving and to keep at it, offering to skate WITH me. (Smile politely, no thank you, I need to focus; in my head OH FUCK NO.)
It is hard to square that with how much I think he is a dick for the selfish way he skates.
People are just SO MUCH
(You know what I mean by that.)