How the DOJ turned a Facebook post into evidence of a federal conspiracy
Jay Kuo at The Status Kuo:
On the morning of June 16, U.S. Attorney Daniel Rosen—a Trump appointee confirmed on a party-line Senate vote—stood before cameras at the federal courthouse in Minneapolis to announce what his office called a sweeping conspiracy to undermine federal law enforcement. His office had obtained an eight-count felony indictment against 15 people connected to anti-ICE organizing in the Twin Cities.
The lead charge was conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer. Rosen described the defendants as participants in a left-wing coalition called Direct Action Minnesota, which he accused of “surveillance, operational planning, and rapid mobilization against law enforcement actions.”
Behind him, on a monitor, was the evidence he had chosen to lead with: a screenshot of a social media post. “You see here a Facebook post from one of the defendants writing, quote: ‘We need to become ungovernable. We need to resist any way we can to materially stop the Nazi occupation,’” Rosen read aloud.
Twelve of the 15 defendants had already been arrested that morning. Two remained at large. Rosen closed with a warning: “If you are actively conspiring to impede law enforcement … you ought to assume that we’re watching you and that we will get you.”
But the unusual charges have already led to many questions.
Rosen had told MPR News reporter Matt Sepic that the people were “charged not for what they said but what they did.” But he led his presentation with a defendant’s thoughts posted publicly online.
A defense attorney in attendance, Bruce Nestor, called the presser a “propaganda show” and zeroed in on this central contradiction. Then he asked what we were all thinking: “What’s wrong with being ungovernable by a fascist government?”
Minnesota Reformer reporter Madison McVan noted that more than a third of the individuals charged during the earlier federal crackdown on Minnesota protesters had already had their cases dismissed or failed in some way. If that’s the case, why was this case different?
“I don’t think any cases have failed in any way,” Rosen replied.
A second reporter immediately bodychecked him with facts. Prosecutors had in fact dropped 18 of the 36 prior cases entirely, with non-prosecution agreements in at least 11 more.
Rosen was also asked directly whether any federal officers had actually been harmed. He declined to say. “Whether or not they actually at the end of the day caused bodily harm,” Rosen argued, “is not the measure of whether or not they committed a serious federal crime.”
Minneapolis in the spotlight again
In Season Two, the federal government has chosen to put Minneapolis back in the news, so it’s helpful to review what happened in Season One.
Operation Metro Surge launched in December 2025, flooding the Twin Cities and surrounding areas with federal immigration agents. At its peak, roughly 4,000 officers from ICE and Customs and Border Protection had been deployed across the state, ultimately making more than 3,700 arrests. Federal agents killed two U.S. citizens in incidents caught on camera—Renée Good on January 7, and Alex Pretti on January 24—bringing the number of people shot across the country between September 2025 and February 2026 to 13, with four fatalities.
Residents of Minneapolis organized in response to the surge and the killings. Community members filmed federal agents during enforcement actions, a practice former DHS Secretary Kristi Noem characterized as a form of violence against officers. Hundreds, and eventually thousands, of Twin Cities residents joined community patrol networks, monitoring ICE movements and bearing witness to arrests.
The indictment unsealed Tuesday runs 94 pages. The bulk of it is devoted to a single charge applied to all 15 defendants: conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer under 18 U.S.C. § 372. The statute was first enacted in 1861, and the Justice Department’s own Office of Legal Counsel, in a 1977 memorandum, noted it had historically been charged only alongside substantive offenses like assault, and had rarely stood alone.
It appeared most recently in a handful of January 6 prosecutions. Before that, its most notable use was against a pair of tax protesters who retreated to their New Hampshire home with a cache of weapons in 2007. The Justice Department is now applying it to nonviolent protest organizers in Minnesota.
To establish the conspiracy, the indictment leans heavily on the group’s internal communications and organizational activity. These include
conducting Signal chats in which members expressed frustration with non-violent tactics;
holding planning sessions for blockades around the Bishop Henry Whipple Federal Building in Fort Snelling;
creating a GoFundMe account;
organizing training sessions for new members;
attending worker assemblies held at the United Labor Centre in Minneapolis, cited in the indictment as evidence of criminal coordination;
and holding an “Anarchist Speaking Tour” in Chicago, Ann Arbor, and Seattle in April, where members allegedly shared tactics with other groups.
And of course, that Facebook post.
As Talking Points Memo noted, beyond the base conspiracy charge, some individual defendants face additional counts. Kyle Wagner, who had previously been arrested in February on federal threat and cyberstalking charges, faces counts of solicitation to commit a crime of violence and interstate threats, based on social media posts urging followers to abandon peaceful protest.
The Trump Regime’s DOJ conducting farcical politically-motivated prosecutions of 15 Minneapolis anti-ICE protesters is a fascistic insult to American values.
Public Notice (Lisa Needham): Minnesota anti-ICE protesters get the Broadview 6 treatment
Law Dork (Chris Geidner): As the Trump admin begins a new prosecution in Minnesota, the "Broadview Six" fallout continues
