{"id":28,"date":"2026-05-22T17:21:47","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T17:21:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=28"},"modified":"2026-05-22T17:21:47","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T17:21:47","slug":"exclusive-fbi-files-counter-government-argument-in-texas-antifa-trial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/summitrelocationtimess.com\/?p=28","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: FBI Files Counter Government Argument in Texas \u201cAntifa\u201d Trial"},"content":{"rendered":"
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This article was produced in partnership with the nonprofit newsroom <\/em><\/em>Type Investigations.<\/em><\/p>

Read more After Decades of Quiet Rumbling, an Epidemic Is Erupting Among California Stoneworkers<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Fort Worth, Texas<\/strong>\u2014On the last day of testimony in the federal \u200b\u201c<\/span>Prairieland\u201d trial\u2009\u2014\u2009wherein nine activists faced charges related to a\u00a0protest outside an Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center\u2009\u2014\u2009the government called its star witness back to the stand. Kyle Shideler, director of counterterrorism research at the right-wing think tank Center for Security Policy, had been key to the prosecution\u2019s case that \u200b\u201c<\/span>antifa\u201d\u2009\u2014\u2009the loose network of activists defined by their opposition to fascism\u2009\u2014\u2009is a\u00a0violent, criminal organization bent on overthrowing the U.S. government. Shideler, an imposing figure with a\u00a0cleanly shaven head and full beard, had attended nearly the entire trial, even sitting in the overflow room during jury\u00a0selection.<\/p>\n

At the stand, Shideler read aloud the government\u2019s definition of antifa, as well as an excerpt from President Donald Trump\u2019s executive order declaring antifa a\u00a0domestic terrorist organization\u2009\u2014\u2009issued in September, less than two weeks after the assassination of right-wing pundit and activist Charlie Kirk. Both documents describe antifa as a\u00a0shadowy, militant \u200b\u201c<\/span>enterprise\u201d involved in \u200b\u201c<\/span>coordinated efforts to obstruct\u201d enforcement of federal laws through \u200b\u201c<\/span>organized riots,\u201d and in perpetrating \u200b\u201c<\/span>violent assaults\u201d against ICE agents and law enforcement\u00a0officers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Three days later, on March 13<\/span>, the jury convicted all nine defendants on a\u00a0variety of charges, ranging from providing material support to terrorists to attempted murder. The ruling could have far-reaching consequences for activists, protesters and NGOs that have aligned themselves in any way with anti-fascist\u00a0organizing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But FBI records obtained by Type Investigations<\/em> and In These Times<\/em> through a\u00a0Freedom of Information Act request contradict the government\u2019s claim that antifa poses an existential threat to national security. And several defense attorneys involved in the trial say the information should have been included in\u00a0discovery.\u00a0<\/p>\n

MarQuetta Clayton, an attorney representing Maricela Rueda\u2009\u2014\u2009one of the defendants convicted of providing material support to terrorists, organizing a\u00a0riot and conspiracy to conceal documents\u2009\u2014\u2009confirmed that the records were not turned\u00a0over.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>Coupled with some of the testimony we heard, I\u00a0feel like that would all be something for the jury to decide whether it was worth anything or not,\u201d Clayton said. \u200b\u201c<\/span>They are the tryers of credibility and\u00a0fact.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The case centered around a\u00a0noise demonstration on July 4<\/span>, 2025<\/span>, in which roughly a\u00a0dozen activists set off fireworks outside the Prairieland ICE detention center in Alvarado, Texas, about a\u00a045<\/span>-minute drive south of Dallas. Noise demonstrations are a\u00a0common protest tactic, sometimes involving fireworks, whistles or megaphones, and a\u00a0way of expressing solidarity with immigrant detainees or inmates who have little contact with the outside world. At least one protester spray painted a\u00a0guard shack and a\u00a0vehicle in the Prairieland parking lot with expletives and anti-ICE slogans and dismantled a\u00a0security camera. Some of the protesters also had firearms\u2009\u2014\u2009which in Texas, an open-carry state, is generally\u00a0legal.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When a\u00a0police officer arrived on scene and pulled his gun, allegedly pointing it at someone running away from him, one of the protesters fired an AR-15<\/span> style rifle in the officer\u2019s direction. The officer was hit just below the neck and suffered minor injuries. That night, and in the weeks that followed, the FBI and state law enforcement raided activists\u2019 homes and arrested 19<\/span>\u00a0people.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The shooter, Benjamin Song, a\u00a032<\/span>-year-old former U.S. Marine Corps reservist\u2009\u2014\u2009who remained at large for 11<\/span>\u00a0days\u2009\u2014\u2009was charged with three counts of attempted murder. (The officer who was shot, Thomas Gross, testified that he believed he was being ambushed and that his life was in danger. On the last day of the trial, Song\u2019s defense argued that he wasn\u2019t aiming at the officer at all but had fired \u200b\u201c<\/span>suppressive\u201d shots toward the ground and that the bullet, which showed signs of impact with a\u00a0hard surface, had ricocheted before grazing the officer.)Other charges included organizing and carrying out a\u00a0riot, providing material support to terrorists and conspiracy to use and carry an explosive. Roughly half a\u00a0dozen activists not at the protest on the night of July 4<\/span>\u00a0were also apprehended and charged with a\u00a0variety of state and federal offenses, including one accused of conspiracy to conceal documents for moving a\u00a0box of anarchist zines to a\u00a0friend\u2019s apartment. (The FBI also raided that home, using a\u00a0battering ram to break through the front door and detonating a\u00a0flash bang device in the living room, and confiscated all of the occupants\u2019 phones and laptops, which have still not been\u00a0returned.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the months since, the Prairieland case became the cornerstone of the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to dismantle antifa and crack down on the Left more broadly. In October 2025<\/span>, when the first indictment in the case was unsealed, FBI Director Kash Patel said it was the \u200b\u201c<\/span>first time\u201d the government had arrested \u200b\u201c<\/span>Antifa-aligned anarchist violent extremists\u201d and charged them with terrorism\u2009\u2014\u2009despite the fact that antifa is not a\u00a0formal organization and has no membership list or leadership\u00a0hierarchy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Making that charge stick is what prosecutors set out to achieve in court. Along with the administration\u2019s crackdown on dissent\u2009\u2014\u2009its use of ICE agents to threaten and detain student protesters, for example\u2009\u2014\u2009this case will likely be used to target the Left and launch investigations into anyone with connections, however tenuous, to\u00a0antifa.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In a\u00a0statement released a\u00a0few hours after the verdict, the Department of Justice cited Shideler\u2019s testimony and referred to the North Texas \u200b\u201c<\/span>Antifa Cell\u201d nearly a\u00a0dozen times. Attorney General Pam Bondi reiterated the administration\u2019s claim that \u200b\u201c<\/span>Antifa is a\u00a0domestic terrorist organization\u201d and said the Prairieland case marked the beginning of a\u00a0broader effort to \u200b\u201c<\/span>systematically dismantle\u201d the\u00a0group.<\/p>\n

Shideler, asked to comment on his testimony in the hallway outside of the courtroom, told Type Investigations<\/em> and In These Times<\/em>, \u200b\u201c<\/span>I\u2019m not taking any\u00a0questions.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the government did not always consider antifa a\u00a0serious threat. Records from an FBI investigation out of the Dallas field office that ended in 2018<\/span> reveal that, under Trump\u2019s first term, the bureau had investigated \u200b\u201c<\/span>Antifa DFW\u201d (and several allegedly related entities, including Dallas Workers Front, Dallas Antifa, Antifa Dallas, Dallas Antifascist and DFW Anti-Fascist League) and found that the group and its affiliates posed no threat to national security. This determination prompted the bureau to formally close the\u00a0investigation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c<\/span>No potential criminal violations or priority threats to national security warranting further investigation were identified,\u201d the two-page FBI file\u00a0states.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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