(WASHINGTON) — Federal prosecutors have secured a grand jury indictment of two alleged followers of the antifa movement on terrorism-related charges stemming from their involvement in a July 4 attack on an ICE detention facility in Alvarado, Texas, according to newly unsealed court records.
The indictment appears to be the first time a charge of material support to terrorism has been applied to alleged followers of the anti-fascist movement, following President Donald Trump’s declaration officially designating the movement as a domestic terrorist organization.
Experts have repeatedly questioned the legality of that proclamation — as did senior officials in law enforcement during Trump’s first term in office — given that the movement has no publicly known leadership structure and there are significant statutory limitations on law enforcement being able to designate domestic groups as terrorists.
The two men who were indicted, Cameron Arnold and Zachary Evetts, were previously charged in connection with the alleged ambush of federal agents at the ICE facility and attempting to kill two correctional officers and an Alvarado police officer, but the grand jury indictment charges both with an additional count of providing material support to terrorists.
Fox News was first to report news of the charges.
In the indictment, filed in the Northern District of Texas, prosecutors describe antifa as a “militant enterprise made up of networks of individuals and small groups primarily ascribing to a revolutionary anarchist or autonomous Marxist ideology, which explicitly calls for the overthrow of the United States government, law enforcement authorities, and the system of law.”
They allege that Arnold and Evetts operated as part of an “Antifa cell” that planned and coordinated the July 4 attack on the ICE facility using firearms and fireworks to target correctional officers.
“Some Antifa Cell members discussed logistics, previous site reconnaissance, and locations of security cameras at the facility. They exchanged a map of Prarieland and the surrounding area that showed the locations of nearby police stations,” the indictment says. “One Antifa Cell member, for example, said in one group chat that they would be “bringing a wagon to hold armor and rifles.”
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