The 94-page indictment unsealed against 15 anti-ICE activists in Minnesota last month as part of the Trump administration’s latest “antifa” prosecution includes page after page of accusations that defendants attended meetings or joined Signal groups.
Among the 15 people accused of participating in a criminal conspiracy to impede immigration enforcement operations during Operation Metro Surge in Minneapolis earlier this year, the allegations against at least two defendants — Erik Davis and Brian Stillwell Apland — largely amount to attending meetings and participating in Signal group chats.
Another defendant, Treasure Thoreson, is accused of carrying a homemade shield to block traffic during a protest near the Whipple Building, a federal ICE facility, in January. The indictment also accuses her of using her Subaru to tow a trailer to and from the federal building. There’s no mention of the trailer being used for a so-called “hard blockade” the government alleges was used to forcibly obstruct federal immigration enforcement operations.
The indictment outlines Thoreson, a special education teacher, and other defendants’ alleged involvement in a second blockade at the Whipple Building, including 22 specific references to her allegedly moderating a meeting; coordinating on Signal to organize volunteer marshals; and then on the day of the March 1 protest handing out radios, carrying a bullhorn, and getting detained by local sheriff’s deputies. The Hennepin County District Attorney dismissed Thoreson’s charge of disorderly conduct three weeks later.
“These charges are brought months after the federal forces were forced to retreat by the people of Minnesota,” Bruce Nestor, Thoreson’s lawyer, told Raw Story. “They rely heavily on Signal chats that thousands, if not tens of thousands, of Minnesotans took part in to coordinate the monitoring and observation of ICE.
“It’s very much a crackdown on the right to dissent and the right of citizens to oppose their government’s policies,” he added. “It occurs in the context of the administration being defeated in Minnesota, and retaliating months later by going after this group of defendants.”
A motion filed last week by Nestor seeking to modify Thoreson’s bond conditions argues that the “last alleged act of actual ‘impeding’” was the street blockade on March 1. The remaining 64 “overt acts” in the alleged conspiracy “consist of public observation of law enforcement officials… speaking tours, and statements of political opinion,” the motion said.
Xavier T. de Janon, the National Lawyers Guild’s director of mass defense, told Raw Story that even “blockades” aren’t typically the focus of federal prosecutions.
“In terms of blockades, there is a long history of that in this country that have enjoyed protection, and have been celebrated,” he said. “It wasn’t called ‘blockades’; it was called ‘civil disobedience’ or ‘conscientious objection.’ The act is the same as walking across a bridge during the Civil Rights Movement.”
The indictment describes more than a dozen categories of activity to argue that the defendants engaged in a criminal conspiracy to impede ICE operations. Beyond blockading the Whipple Building, the government alleges the conspiracy included coordinating rapid response networks and using “commuting” tactics — commonly known as “ICE verifying” — to hamper immigration enforcement, as well as advocating direct action.
Federal prosecutors openly acknowledge that the prosecution is a response to National Security Presidential Memorandum-7, or NSPM-7, a White House directive calling on federal agencies to target antifascists as a domestic terrorist threat based on “anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity,” and other seemingly arbitrary beliefs.
De Janon told Raw Story he believes the federal government is utilizing a formula to crack down on dissent through an “antifa scare” by building a criminal conspiracy case around Signal communications.
“The majority of the indictment is Signal chat statements,” de Janon said. “The concern is based on how reality works in protest cultures: People join Signal chats, leave them, delete them.
“That is antagonistic to the First Amendment, because this is freedom of association at its purest form,” he said. “After you associate and assemble, you have speech. Once you gather, this government thinks you’re committing a crime.”
Thoreson and her co-defendants argue that the prosecution is politically motivated.
“This is not a normal criminal trial,” defendant Isaac Sant, a healthcare worker, told the outlet Unicorn Riot. “This is a political case. This is political repression against organizers. And this is a case that’s going to be won in the political realm.”
Thoreson’s motion accuses the government of engaging in viewpoint discrimination through the prosecutions, while citing NSPM-7.
The conspiracy count in the indictment includes no allegation that a federal officer was injured as a result of the defendants’ actions, Thoreson’s motion notes. It’s ironic that she’s being prosecuted “by an administration that has pardoned convicted criminals” involved in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, the motion argues, adding that many of them “actually injured and impeded federal officers, but had the good fortune to share the political views of the administration.”
“The President’s memorandum is focused on investigating, disrupting, dismantling, and prosecuting individuals and entities engaged in organized political violence and domestic terrorism — specifically the sophisticated and organized campaigns that necessitate a new law enforcement strategy,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson told Raw Story.
“Left-wing organizations have fueled violent riots, organized attacks against law enforcement officers, coordinated illegal doxing campaigns, arranged drop points for weapons and riot materials, and more,” she added. “The Trump administration will get to the bottom of this vast network inciting violence in American communities, and the president’s executive actions to address left-wing violence will put an end to any illegal activities.”
The Department of Justice did not return an email for this story. At the time the indictment was announced, Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche highlighted the defendants’ alleged membership in “Antifa groups.”
“Their actions created a dangerous environment that threatened not only their intended targets, but the community as a whole,” Blanche said. “These arrests demonstrate the department’s commitment to law and order and stopping organized political violence in Minneapolis and beyond.”
The indictment accuses the defendants of working with “rapid response networks to identify and harass federal immigration and law enforcement officers… to prevent officers from performing their official duties.” The indictment describes a sophisticated by a network of volunteers coordinating to identify federal law enforcement vehicles, log the information into a database, and then utilize “dispatchers” to relay “verified” information to “commuters,” who respond to locations where federal officers are attempting to arrest immigrants.
“Monitoring law enforcement is and should be legal,” de Janon said. “That’s what ICE verifiers do — they monitor law enforcement. I think this is attempting to criminalize and scare people from engaging in this advocacy that is popular.”
The case “is about quelling dissent in Minneapolis,” Sant said. “And it’s about coming after the movement that rose up against ICE during Metro Surge in December and January. If the things that I’m accused of doing are part of a criminal conspiracy, then 350,000 people who participated in the resistance here would also have to be part of that conspiracy.
“This is a naked attempt to silence our voices, to squash dissent, and to have a chilling effect on organizing here in the Twin Cities,” Sant said. “And I’m here to tell you it’s not going to work.”
The indictment cites a statement allegedly made by one of the defendants at an “Anarchist Speaking Tour” event in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to characterize rapid response networks as “inherently militant.”
“That is so fictional, because across the country ICE verifiers who are part of rapid response networks are teachers, retirees and clergy,” de Janon said. “The most harmless people in society are doing ICE verifying. But this indictment calls them ‘militant.’ That is the narrative the government wants to create.”