The Justice Department brought its first federal terrorism case in the Trump administration’s crackdown on Antifa Wednesday, alleging that two people connected to the left-wing ideology participated in a coordinated attack on a federal immigration detention facility.
Prosecutors accuse Zachary Evetts and Cameron Arnold, who also goes by the name Autumn Hill, of being members of an “Antifa Cell” that used vandalism and fireworks to draw law enforcement officers out of an immigration detention facility near Fort Worth, Texas, and into the sights of two shooters positioned in a line of trees across the street.
The indictment is a major step in the administration’s campaign against Antifa, which they say wants to violently challenge the federal government and Trump’s supporters.
Trump designated Antifa as a domestic terrorist organization
last month.
Until the case against Evetts and Arnold was unsealed Thursday, it was unclear how federal prosecutors planned to legally define Antifa as a terrorist organization. Antifa is largely thought of as more of an ideology than an organized group,
CNN has previously reported.