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Lawfare Daily: The Trial of the North Texas Antifa Cell

March 5, 2026·57 min·5 clips

The DOJ brought terrorism charges against Antifa protesters just days after an executive order designated them as terrorists.

This Lawfare Daily episode examines the ongoing trial of an alleged Antifa cell in North Texas, with host Peter Beck joined by former DOJ domestic terrorism chief Tom Brzozowski, Lawfare fellow LT Edwards, and Texas Observer correspondent Stephen Monticelli. Monticelli recounts the events of July 4, 2025, when approximately a dozen masked individuals wearing black converged on the Prairieland ICE detention facility. The group set off fireworks, spray-painted guard facility cars, and shouted at federal officers. When a local police lieutenant arrived, shots were fired — the officer was hit but returned fire without striking anyone. Ten were arrested immediately; the alleged shooter, Benjamin Song, evaded capture for several days. The defendants were initially charged with attempted murder of a federal official and related offenses. Following the assassination of Charlie Kirk and a subsequent executive order designating Antifa, a superseding indictment added material support to terrorism charges under 18 USC 2339A. Edwards explains that 2339A does not require affiliation with any designated group — it prohibits providing material support to individuals committing certain federal crimes of terrorism. The statute was designed to reach one to two steps before violence occurs. He contrasts this case with a previous 2339A prosecution involving defendants who kidnapped children and trained them to attack FBI agents. Brzozowski details the administration's policy infrastructure: an executive order purporting to designate Antifa (which has no statutory mechanism), NSPM-7 covering Antifa-adjacent activity including anti-capitalism and extreme gender rights views, and an AG memorandum directing creation of a tip line, a secret domestic terrorist organization list, and incentive structures prioritizing Antifa investigations. He notes a stark dissonance: the FBI director's congressional testimony and formal threat assessments make no reference to Antifa. Monticelli profiles the defendants as North Texas leftist activists connected through the Socialist Rifle Association and the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club, with backgrounds as teachers and UPS workers. The material support charges extend to post-incident conduct: moving a box of political zines, helping the alleged shooter evade arrest, and removing an arrested person from Signal group chats. The defense argues most defendants believed they were attending a noise demonstration and had no knowledge of any planned violence. They point to two unarmed federal officers who emerged from the facility and were not harmed as evidence there was no planned attack. The prosecution maintains it was a coordinated ambush. Edwards raises concerns about the government's invocation of the Classified Information Procedures Act in a domestic case with no obvious foreign nexus, and the downstream risks of vague domestic terrorism definitions eroding public confidence in legitimate threat investigations.

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