15 Minnesotans Indicted Over Anti-ICE Protests

Federal prosecutors in Minnesota say they're addressing "organized lawless behavior" with charges over clashes with immigration agents during the crackdown in Minneapolis earlier this year. A grand jury has indicted 15 people on charges of conspiring to obstruct or harm federal officers and for allegedly organizing efforts to "violently oppose immigration law enforcement," US Attorney Daniel Rosen announced Tuesday. He repeatedly declined to detail the alleged plot or specify injuries, saying only that the evidence "will prove it all out" as the case moves forward, MPR News reports.

• Rosen said a monthslong investigation of anti-ICE protests focused on two activist groups he said were "antifa," which the AP describes as "an umbrella term for a diffuse movement of militant left-wing activists." President Trump has labeled the movement a domestic terrorist group.
• The indictment accuses defendants of coordinating encrypted chats and rapid-response networks to track agents, blockade the Whipple Federal Building in Minneapolis, conduct surveillance, and raise funds. It does not allege specific acts of violence involving the defendants, though prosecutors say someone in a crowd threw chunks of ice at law enforcement vehicles.
• Many of the allegations appear to be connected to FBI Director Kash Patel's vow in January to investigate encrypted chats used to organize protests, the New York Times reports.

Rosen said a dozen defendants were arrested Tuesday, two remain at large, and one was already in custody. The move follows a shaky record for earlier protest-related cases: of 36 people charged in December and January, 29 have seen their cases dropped outright or through non-prosecution agreements, and a magistrate judge labeled one affidavit "false," MPR News reports. Defense attorney Bruce Nestor called the new charges a political attack on opponents of what he termed a "budding fascist government." The move is "designed to punish and intimidate," he said, per the Times. "It's designed to target the opponents of this administration based upon their thoughts and their politics."