A Fort Worth federal jury got a closer look Tuesday at the alleged "antifa" materials the government says motivated what it's calling a coordinated attack on an immigration detention center July 4.
FBI investigators walked the jury Tuesday through “zines,” or homemade booklets, pamphlets, posters and other items they found in the homes and cars of several people on trial. Anti-fascism, anarchy, the abolition of ICE and police, opposition to Israel, noise demonstrations, direct action and animal rights were common messages found throughout the material.
Owning these items is not illegal, FBI Special Agent Kasey Bennett testified in Fort Worth federal court Tuesday.
“But when acts of violence come from that belief,” Bennett testified, “that’s when we investigate.”
The Justice Department argues the shooting and the events surrounding it were motivated by the defendants’ “antifa” or anti-fascist beliefs. Assistant U.S. Attorney Shawn Smith described antifa during opening arguments as a decentralized movement made up of small "cells," with anarchist and socialist components that are anti-government, anti-police, anti-immigration enforcement and anti-President Trump.
But the defendants and their supporters maintain that the night of July 4 was only meant to be a noise demonstration in support of those inside the Prairieland ICE detention center. And attorneys for the defendants have made one clear argument through their questioning: owning the literature or weapons shown is not illegal.
Lydia Koza, wife of defendant Autumn Hill, said those accused may not share identical views just because they own similar literature.
“Zines are really like this little atomic unit of freedom of the press with real simple pamphlets that you just pass around,” Koza said. “It really begs the question of whether or not the prosecution believes that we should have a First Amendment in the first place if they're saying this.”
Trump declared "antifa" a domestic terrorist organization last year. But there is no federal criminal statute to charge people for domestic terrorism like there is for foreign terrorism.
The Prairieland defendants, among other things, are charged with providing material support to terrorism.
Some of the evidence shows the defendants’ alleged involvement with the local chapters of leftist or anarchist groups like the Socialist Rifle Association or the Emma Goldman Book Club. Defendants Ines and Elizabeth Soto and Savanna Batten were most closely tied to the book club, prosecutors implied.
Jurors saw pistols, rifles and ballistic vests found in some of the defendants’ possession up close.
The prosecution also specifically built out its case against Daniel Sanchez Estrada. While not accused of being at Prairieland the night of the shooting, Sanchez Estrada is charged with corruptly concealing evidence for allegedly moving a box of “insurrectionary” materials from his parents’ home in Garland to an apartment in Denton.
Prosecutors allege Maricela Rueda, another defendant who’s married to Sanchez Estrada, instructed him to do this in a call from jail.
The jury is expected to hear testimony from defendants who pleaded guilty Wednesday.
Toluwani Osibamowo is KERA’s law and justice reporter. Got a tip? Email Toluwani at tosibamowo@kera.org.
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