Feds charge 15 ‘antifa’ activists with ginning up anti-ICE violence in Minneapolis

Federal prosecutors announced charges Tuesday against 15 people they said were part of an “antifa” plot to stoke violence against ICE in Minneapolis earlier this year, accusing them of spurring clashes with federal agents and shutting down government offices.

Daniel Rosen, the U.S. attorney in Minneapolis, said the people were part of Direct Action Minnesota, which used the cover of regular protests to undermine U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as it sought to carry out President Trump’s mass deportation orders.

Mr. Rosen said the antifa associates overturned vehicles, hurled blocks of ice at law enforcement, tried to stop ICE from making arrests and stalked officers.

“These defendants have been charged not for what they said, but what they did,” he told reporters at a press conference in Minnesota.

The 94-page indictment, secured last week and unsealed Tuesday, includes extensive details of Direct Action’s planning, including raising money, securing vehicles to be used as blockades, and supplying shields to help battle police.

“You will never win with non-violence alone. Ever,” one of the defendants, Cameron Kennedy, posted on Facebook, according to the indictment, which said he mocked “dumb f – – – pacifists” as traitors to the anti-ICE movement.

The charges are the most visible action so far under Mr. Trump’s order last year designating antifa, or anti-facists — a loose term for a left-wing brand of anti-government behavior — as a “terrorist threat.”

Mr. Rosen said many of the 15 charged self-identified as antifa, so he was comfortable using the label against them.

“The MO of these particular operations is to exploit legal protests that were ongoing for their illegal acts,” he said.

Mr. Trump surged thousands of Homeland Security agents and officers into Minnesota beginning late last year as he sought to target what he has labeled a “sanctuary” jurisdiction that protects illegal immigrants from deportation.

Similar deployments in other cities and states had occurred with varying levels of resistance, but Minnesota proved to be different, with officers confronted in city streets.

Two of those confrontations ended with U.S. citizens getting shot and killed. Renee Good was slain on Jan. 7 by an ICE officer after she partially blocked a street, refused an order to get out of her SUV and then drove off, seemingly clipping an officer with the front of her vehicle.

On Jan. 24, Alex Pretti was shot by U.S. Customs and Border Protection personnel when he was filming federal officers as part of an anti-ICE protest.

Mr. Rosen was peppered with questions about why no charges have been brought in those cases. He said Tuesday that the investigations are still ongoing and he will bring charges if appropriate.

Authorities had already brought charges in February against one man, Kyle Wagner, who self-proclaimed his antifa affiliation and posted to social media calling for “armed and ready” resistance to ICE.

Mr. Wagner is also among the 15 in the new charges announced Tuesday.

The others are Isaac Auman Sant, Emmett James Doyle, Cameron Kennedy, Callum Robinet, Erik Davis, Brian Stillwell Apland, Hannah Margaret Van De Water Davis, Treasure Cay Thoreson, Nathan Junho Kim, Alec Stewart, Douglas Misterek, Dustin Scott Biesell, William Morgan and Natasha Rakotz.

Of the 15, one was previously in custody and 12 others were arrested this week. Two were still at large Tuesday, though Mr. Rosen said he expects them to surrender.