An attack on a Texas federal facility has led to five people admitting to offering support for terrorism as members of an Antifa cell.
It is the first time that criminal suspects admitted to being involved in an Antifa cell, contradicting claims from many on the left that Antifa does not exist as an organization.
‘Antifa is a militant enterprise that advocates insurrection and violence to affect the policy and conduct of the US government by intimidation and coercion.’
Seth Sikes, Joy Abigail Gibson, Lynette Read Sharp, Nathan Baumann, and John Phillip Thomas each agreed that they had planned “to provide resources and personnel” before the July 4th attack intentionally knowing that “they would be used to carry out acts of terrorism.”
The agreement allows them to limit their possible prison time to 15 years rather than face decades of imprisonment.
An officer was shot in the neck in the attack at the Prairieland Detention Facility after confronting a suspicious individual who appeared to be carrying a firearm. “Multiple suspects” fired upon the officer, according to the Johnson County Sheriff’s Office.
The officer was treated at a hospital and released.
The expansive investigation into the incident led to charges being filed against a total of 18 people. Gibson, Baumann, and Sikes were present the night of the attack, while Sharp and Thomas helped the accused shooter evade authorities.
Baumann agreed to stipulated facts about the plot in his plea deal.
“Baumann found that others who participated in the acts against Prairieland adhered to an Antifa, revolutionary anarchist or autonomous Marxist ideology that is anti-law enforcement, anti-immigration enforcement, and calls for the overthrow of the United States Government, law enforcement authorities, and the system of law,” the deal read. “Antifa is a militant enterprise that advocates insurrection and violence to affect the policy and conduct of the U.S. government by intimidation and coercion.”
The five who agreed to a plea deal are also facing state charges from Johnson County prosecutors. The rest of the 18 suspects are facing numerous local and federal charges.
“The charges the Grand Jury has leveled against these defendants, including material support for terrorists, address the vicious attack perpetrated by an anti-ICE, anti-law enforcement, anti-government, anarchist group,” said acting U.S. Attorney Nancy Larson in the press release.
RELATED: Anti-ICE messaging on bullets at shooting scene of ICE facility in Dallas
An attorney for another suspect named Elizabeth Soto said she pleaded not guilty and would contest the accusations in court.
Some of the defendants and their attorneys said that they intended to protest the immigration policies of the Trump administration but did not intend for shots to be fired.
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Prairieland attack, Ice facility attack, Antifa terror convictions, Antifa cell plea deals, Politics
