Far-Right Think Tank Researcher Aided Justice Department in "Antifa" Indictment

A researcher from a far-right think tank testified Monday that he assisted Justice Department prosecutors in drafting the indictment for terror charges against an alleged "north Texas antifa cell." Kyle Shideler of the Center for Security Policy stated under questioning that he provided language used by prosecutors in what is being described as the first domestic terrorism case targeting a purported antifa group. These charges stem from a protest held outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center near Dallas.

Shideler's involvement highlights an unusually close collaboration between federal prosecutors and a Washington advocacy group known for advocating government action against left-wing activists. He confirmed conferring with prosecutors in October, a month before the indictment was secured in the Texas case. Defense attorneys raised concerns about Shideler’s affiliation with the Center for Security Policy, a nonprofit founded by Frank Gaffney, who has been labeled an Islamophobic conspiracy theorist, and which the Southern Poverty Law Center designates as a hate group.

The nine defendants currently on trial face potentially lengthy prison sentences for a noise demonstration that occurred on July 4 of last year outside the ICE Prairieland Detention Center. During the protest, fireworks were used, and a responding police officer was shot in the neck. Shideler testified as an expert witness for the government, detailing the history of antifascist organizing and linking the defendants' actions and recovered anarchist materials to antifa practices.