What Counts As Domestic Terrorism in Trump’s America? |
Days after the killing of Charlie Kirk in September, the Department of Justice announced a crackdown on “antifa,” or anti-fascist groups. Federal prosecutors soon brought terrorism charges against a group of activists who had been arrested during a protest outside Prairieland Detention Center in North Texas, accusing them of having ties to antifa. Attorney General Pam Bondi called antifa a “left-wing terrorist organization” the same day, and that same month, President Donald Trump tried to designate antifa a “domestic terror group,” though there is no federal legal basis for him to do so. He then issued National Security Memorandum-7, which cited the Prairieland case and Kirk’s murder as proof of “organized political violence from the left,” Texas Monthly reported. This wasn’t the first time Trump or his officials had singled out anti-fascists for legal threats, but it was the first time the federal government brought domestic-terrorism charges against alleged antifa members.
The charges stem from an incident that occurred on July 4, 2025. As The Guardian reported, protesters set off fireworks near the facility for a planned noise demonstration; a few spray-painted a guard booth and vehicles in the center’s parking lot. They damaged tires and a security camera while “two unarmed correctional officers attempted to talk” to the group, The Guardian added. From there, events are murky. At some point, former Marine reservist Benjamin Song “allegedly yelled” for his fellow protesters to “get to the rifles” and shot toward law enforcement, injuring one officer in the neck. During the trial, which began in February, the officer said he “may have pulled his gun” before Song “drew his rifle,” KERA News reported. But the judge, Trump appointee Mark Pittman, ruled it “legally invalid” for Song to claim self-defense. Prosecutors repeatedly misgendered two trans defendants during the trial and claimed the group was antifa based on reading materials they discovered in people’s homes and cars: According to The Guardian, prosecutors showed jurors a movie review of Midsommar and Hereditary titled “The Satanic Death-Cult Is Real,” anti-Trump stickers became evidence, and so did a pamphlet from the Socialist Rifle Association, which showed a person putting a swastika into a trash can.
Last Friday, a federal jury in Texas found nine activists guilty on a range of charges, including rioting, the use and carry of explosives — fireworks, as KERA News reported — and material support for terrorism. Song was convicted of attempted murder. Another protester, Maricela Rueda, was convicted of conspiring to conceal documents. Legal experts say the case has been misunderstood from the beginning and fear the convictions undermine the First Amendment. Meagan Knuth of the Dallas–Fort Worth chapter of the National Lawyers Guild spoke to me this week about the verdict and its implications for dissent in the United States.
When the federal government announced charges, it referred to the defendants as a “North Texas antifa cell.” From your legal perspective, what does the government’s language tell us about its interpretation and application of the law?That language is clearly intentionally chosen. One of the government’s expert witnesses, Kyle Shideler of the Center for Security Policy, provided the definition of antifa used in the indictments. That intention, it seems to me, is to fit a narrative and........