DOJ Charges 15 Tied to Minneapolis Anti-Fascist Groups as Federal Surveillance of Protest Networks Comes Into View
Contributing writer Clint Combs reports on the Justice Department's charges against 15 people allegedly tied to Black Cat Workers Collective and Direct Action Minnesota, a 94-page indictment revealing an extensive federal surveillance operation that quoted verbatim from encrypted Signal chats, and the protest and tear gas deployment outside the St. Paul courthouse where defendants were arraigned.
The Justice Department on Tuesday announced conspiracy, assault, stalking, and other charges against 15 people allegedly tied to two Minneapolis-based anti-fascist organizations.
The 94-page indictment against alleged members of Black Cat Workers Collective and Direct Action Minnesota revealed what appeared to be an extensive federal surveillance operation. Prosecutors quote verbatim from encrypted Signal chats spanning months, citing private conversations among organizers, and reference training events in multiple states, suggesting investigators either infiltrated protest networks or obtained access to participants’ devices.
The case comes amid President Donald Trump’s effort to elevate perceived threats of political violence from the American left by designating anti-fascist groups as “domestic terrorist organizations.”
The National Lawyers Guild and civil liberties groups condemned the arrests.
“It attempts to treat nonviolent civil disobedience as a serious federal felony, while transforming core First Amendment-protected speech activities, such as organizing public speeches or writing articles for online publications, into those of a nebulous criminal conspiracy,” Defending Rights and Dissent posted on X. “The indictment devotes disturbing attention to their views as anarchists, treating proclamations of political ideology as though they were admissions of criminal guilt.”
U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen said that the defendants “are charged with conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer, solicitation to commit a crime of violence, interstate threats, interstate stalking, assault on a federal officer, and destruction of government property.”
St. Paul Homeland Security Investigations Special Agent in Charge Michael McCarthy described the protest culture as confrontational.
“Over the past several months, we have seen organized groups deliberately plan and carry out criminal acts, including assaults, threats, destruction of government property and efforts to obstruct federal officers,” said McCarthy. “Much of the recent civil unrest in the metro area has been linked to anti-ICE demonstrations.”
But when reporters pressed prosecutors to substantiate claims that federal officers had been attacked or assaulted, Rosen repeatedly declined to provide details. When asked what evidence supported those allegations, he would not say whether any agents had actually been injured.
“I can’t elaborate on that today, and I don’t believe I used the word attacks, but if I did, I stand by it,” Rosen said.
Reporters then asked why prosecutors had not presented evidence of the alleged attacks during the news conference. Rosen again declined to provide specifics.
“We’re showing what we think is necessary in order to get the story out, and I recommend that you read the indictment,” he said.
Rosen was similarly unwilling to explain the government’s repeated references to antifa. When asked how prosecutors were connecting defendants other than Kyle Wagner to antifa, he deferred to future court proceedings.
“Okay, so that again falls into the realm of the evidence that will roll out in the course of the prosecution,” said Rosen. “I understand that the indictments were only unsealed 15 minutes before this press conference, but I do recommend that you read it, and your question will at least be answered in part.”
The indictment offers the clearest picture yet of how federal authorities penetrated protest networks in Minnesota and beyond. Prosecutors quote messages from at least a dozen Signal group chats dating back to January 2026, including channels devoted to monitoring immigration agents leaving the Whipple Federal Building.
Organizers themselves appeared aware of the risk. One person on Signal warned members they “cannot actually avoid infiltration, especially by the federal government,” according to the indictment.
Prosecutors further cited private speaking and training events in Chicago, Ann Arbor, and Seattle, indicating the investigation extended far beyond Minnesota.
Prosecutors accused Natasha Rakotz of assaulting a federal agent with her Honda Civic. Rakotz followed a federal agent from the Whipple Building to the areas of State Highway 55 and Minnesota Highway 5, according to the indictment. Prosecutors alleged that Rakotz brake-checked and sideswiped the ICE vehicle, causing a crash.
Her attorney James Cook disputed the government’s claim.
“They alleged that she tried to, you know, cause some type of thing with her car,” said Cook. “It was an accident, it’s a freaking accident,” he said.
Cook argued that the prosecution was ultimately driven by the administration’s immigration crackdown rather than violence by protesters.
“We are here because of immigrant detainees, right, not because of protesters, not because of all that other thing,” Cook said. “Because immigrant detainees, because Trump, they decided to send people here to do Metro Surge people are being treated unfairly.”
Later that afternoon, protests broke out outside the federal courthouse in St. Paul where defendants were arraigned. Security guards ordered protesters to shut the courthouse doors after scores of protesters chanted “Drop the charges. Drop them now.”
U.S. Marshals deployed tear gas, sending one woman to the hospital.
Sasmit Rahman was pepper-sprayed by U.S. Marshals. She argued that court security treated demonstrators as adversaries rather than members of the public seeking access to court proceedings.
“It was tense. It was combative. I think it’s really unfortunate that it seems like city officials, especially those working in security, have kind of seemed to develop this us versus them mentality when it comes to protesters,” Rahman said. “We could have worked together. We could have gotten an overflow room, or like any sort of stream, or like updates about the court system. That would have been incredible, but instead they chose to go nuclear.”
Rahman said the federal crackdown and the mobilized response had not come as a surprise.
“I don’t think anyone was like super prepared for when Operation Metro Surge had started, but I do think a lot of people had seen it coming,” Rahman said. “Minneapolis and St. Paul have both such amazing progressive histories, and histories of people fighting back, and I know Donald Trump personally does not like that.”