As Democratic leaders like Rep. Dan Goldman (D, N.Y.) insist that Antifa does not exist as a group, two Antifa groups — Front Range Antifa and Colorado Springs Antifa — put out a hit list poster on a University of Colorado sophomore and leader in Turning Point USA. He was promptly attacked by a person in the signature Antifa black outfit on roller blades who used a hockey stick to mete out the punishment.
According to a press release, Boulder Police are looking for a suspect accused of attacking a 19-year-old Turning Point USA student leader near the University of Colorado, Boulder on Thursday evening. The attacker is suspected to be an Antifa member and to have followed the victim in the premeditated attack.
The suspect is described as dressed in “all black clothing, a black ski mask, and had a green Gatorade bottle with an orange top in his back right pants pocket. He was skating with a hockey stick. The suspect fled the scene after the victim called 911, and Boulder Police and CU Police officers searched the area but did not locate him.”
Police added:
“In the interest of transparency, detectives are also confirming that they are aware that the victim was the subject of some social media posts and a digital flyer circulated by others prior to last night’s incident. Whether these played a role in the reported assault is part of the investigation, and police are not commenting further on this finding.”
The Antifa flyer accused the sophomore of being “an active member” of “neo-Nazi organizations” and is “responsible for white supremacist, antisemitic, and anti-LGBTQ vandalism on campus and across Boulder,” and also “participated in a white supremacist boxing tournament.” The Boulder Students for a Democratic Society reportedly shared the flyer on their social media. They encouraged followers to “share widely” and tag the school to notify them of a “Nazi activist on CU Boulder campus.”
The TPUSA student was not seriously injured, but the point was made by Antifa that any critics can be tracked down and attacked.
Recently, in a debate with my colleague Professor Mary Ann Frank on free speech, I objected when she repeated the often-used claim on the left that “if you oppose Antifa, you are by definition a fascist.” I noted that many in the free speech community have been threatened by this group, which is the most violent, anti-free speech movement in the United States.
At the same time, Democratic leaders are ramping up denials of the very existence of Antifa as a group in an effort to deflect criticism for their own increasingly rage-filled rhetoric at a time of rising political violence.
Recently, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D) claimed that “nobody” knows what the left-wing terrorist organization Antifa is and that it does not exist. However, he previously promoted the “Antifa Handbook” in 2018 and praised the group as terrifying Trump. Now, however, he has joined the chorus of Antifa denials as political violence rises around the country.
As I previously wrote, it is reminiscent of how, roughly seventy years ago, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover famously declared, “There is no organized crime in America.” Hoover’s stubborn denial of the existence of the mafia continued despite ample evidence to the contrary, from arrests to congressional testimony.
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) seemed to morph into Hoover before our very eyes, including a posting in which he challenged anyone to “name one member of ‘Antifa.’” The Justice Department then named two in another criminal prosecution of Antifa members.
Others on the left have joined Goldman in this absurd claim. Late-night host Jimmy Kimmel committed part of his monologue to assure viewers that Antifa is no more than a mythical “chupacabra.” “You understand there is no Antifa,” he said. “This is an entirely made-up organization.”
I have testified about Antifa before Congress, published columns on the organization for over a decade, and wrote a book discussing Antifa. I did oppose declaring Antifa a terrorist organization due to free speech concerns, but I also know that it is very real.
By design, Antifa avoids typical leadership hierarchies and organizational structures. Antifa was first created in the 1920s, associated with the Weimar-era German communist group Antifaschistische Aktion.
Many protesters belong to Antifa groups that have names like “Rose City Antifa” and offshoots like Love and Rage and Mexico’s Amor Y Rabia. Antifa members have been elected to the French and European parliaments.
Law enforcement officials, like former FBI Director Christopher Wray, have long debunked deniers like Goldman. “Antifa is a real thing,” said Wray.
Ironically, when many on the left are not denying its existence, they are rallying their members or actually selling Antifa merchandise. As noted above, former Democratic National Committee deputy chair Keith Ellison — now the Minnesota attorney general — proclaimed that Antifa would “strike fear in the heart” of Trump. His own son, Minneapolis City Council member Jeremiah Ellison, declared his allegiance to Antifa in the heat of the protests this summer.
But, with Antifa violence on the rise, Democratic leaders have gone back to denying its existence even as Antifa deploys its signature black hoodies and masks.
The Colorado case shows just how real, violent, and organized this group is in the United States.
More on ANTIFA = KKK.
The comparison of Democrat Governor George Wallace to Democrat Governor J.B. Pritzker is on point
Today’s Leftist Democrats look “With a wink and a nod” at ANTIFA violence, while the Democrat government encourages violent attacks to …. discourage Christianity. Democrat heathens refer to Christians as “white nationalists” just like Muslim extremists wish to kill Jews and Christians alike.
Antifa And The KKK: A Paramilitary Parallel
Klan tactics ranged from intimidation to flogging and finally to lynching. Meanwhile Democrats worked the political angle. They forced the passage of the Posse Comitatus Act of 1878 to flummox federal troops enforcing civil rights laws. They took the lead in opposing both anti-lynching laws and The Civil Rights Act of 1964. Meanwhile, the KKK intimidated opposition with cross-burnings. Local sheriffs looked away as beatings made the dissenters powerless. In essence, yesterday’s Democrat George Wallace and today’s Democrat J.B.Pritzker share common “gridiron” aspirations: run interference so the paramilitary can get the ball to the goal.
Especially in Portland, Antifa fits into the scheme. It does the extra-legal “dirty work” of the Democrat Party and its government. That is Antifa’s mission as it protests “mostly peacefully,” i.e., “peppered violently.” Antifa thwarts the enforcement of federal immigration law just as the KKK thwarted civil rights laws. Meanwhile, allied governments do their part to withhold police protection from ICE offices, their employees, their spouses and children.
Antifa intimidates and assaults ICE while the group publishes their identities and addresses. “With a wink and a nod” the Democrat government encourages violent attacks made possible by the “doxing” and stalking of ICE agents as well as those who oppose the goals of socialism, transvestite dominance and discouraging the practice of evangelical Christianity. In turn, local government assures their allied paramilitary that there will be little or no accountability for such lawlessness. Interestingly, like the Klan, Antifa members hide their own identities by masking with their version of a less bulky “hoodless hood.”
https://rlevy.substack.com/p/antifa-and-the-kkk-a-paramilitary
Facebook sold a “kill list” with cellular tracking data.
Sold to whom? We don’t know there was a USDOJ “sealed” coverup.
Why was there a “sealed” coverup?
To cover up who got what and how much from whom*
*(Facebook shareholders I presume not Mark Z)
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/19/640002304/hud-hits-facebook-for-allowing-housing-discrimination
Why would FB settle for 3rd party NAZIs who broke the law when they were engaged in perfectly legal data sales protected by federal law?
Good question for shareholder trial lawyers
Apparently Keystone Kop Kash Patel had urgent FBI business in College Park, PA and Nashville, TN over the weekend.
He used a government jet for this business.
In College Park he attended a concert by his girlfriend, country singer Alexis Wilkins, and appeared on stage with her.
After the concert he flew to Nashville, which quite coincidentally is where Alexis Wilkins lives.
I’m sure this was entirely coincidental, and he was really hot on the trail of information about Amelia Earhart and Jimmy Hoffa as part of the investigations ordered by Trump.
Did you just call the FBI Director the KKK?
Did you go along in his colon? Since your heads already up there.
Comparing KKK to ANTIFA is not a new idea. Substitute the word “Biden” for “Democrats” in the following 2020 article, and the article applies to ANTIFA today. Democrats need ANTIFA to keep the rest of us in line just like they depended on the “idea” of the KKK, not a centralized organization, to keep blacks in line.
Ku Klux Klan, Antifa and Black Lives Matter
Sept 11, 2020
There seems to be a consistent thread of groups acting as the enforcement arm of the Democrat Party going back to the post-Civil War era when the Ku Klux Klan was formed in 1865. It was formed to resist the Republican Party’s Reconstruction policies designed to establish political and economic equality for Black Americans.
[…]
Antifa is a leftist militant group and their goal is not fighting for freedom, but for a communist revolution. In case you’ve forgotten it was Joe Biden who praised Antifa when he kicked off his presidential bid in 2019….
I don’t think Antifa is as much pro Biden as they are anti-Trump. Joe Meyers, a former Defense Intelligence Agency official and counterinsurgency expert stated, “President Trump’s election and revitalization of America are a threat to Antifa’s nihilist goals.” They are fomenting this violence to create havoc, despair and to target the Trump campaign for defeat in 2020. Antifa figures that they have a much better chance to flourish under a Biden administration than that of Trump’s.
It appears that historically the vast majority of the violence does not come from the Republican side of the aisle. It was a Bernie Sanders supporter who shot Republican Congressman Steve Scalise in 2017 as well as four others. U.S. Capitol Police on the site killed the shooter and saved many lives. Just recently a Trump supporter was killed in one of Portland, Oregon’s nightly riots by an admitted Antifa supporter, Michael Forest Reinoehl, who later was killed by federal task force members as he pulled a gun on them.
Our nation endured the atrocities of the Klan for 100 years. Now we are facing more violence from Antifa and BLM. Neither group wants to make America better, they want to remake America using a Marxist model and President Trump stands in their way.
https://www.dailycommercial.com/story/opinion/2020/09/11/right-ku-klux-klan-antifa-and-black-lives-matter/3459966001/
Yet another victory for free speech !!!!
A former Coast Guard lieutenant who called for President Donald Trump’s assassination on social media was acquitted by a federal jury Tuesday after his attorneys argued the posts were protected speech under the First Amendment.
Federal prosecutors in Virginia argued that Peter A. Stinson, who received sharpshooting awards during his 33-year career as a Coast Guard officer, “seriously, specifically and repeatedly called for someone to assassinate the President” in online messages dating from 2020 to 2025. Stinson’s public defenders argued that the posts were not specific enough to overcome the First Amendment’s protection on speech that advocates violence.
The jury deliberated for only a few hours before finding him not guilty.
I eagerly await Turley’s exhaustive analysis of this important First Amendment case.
Likely he may enjoy his absolute freedom of speech; it may be difficult to prove conspiracy or any actual crime.
It’s tough to be a free American, isn’t it?
Nope..
The claim that Antifa does not exist reminds me of the remark of Mark Twain regarding the authorship of the Iliad and the Odyssey: if they weren’t written by Homer, they were at least written by someone using his name. The issue is not whether some hidden organization can be found. The issue is whether its symbols, rhetoric, and methods are used to justify violence by the Left. The people exploiting that heritage is our Homer.
The United States in particular and the World in general are in a Geopolitical Cycle, with the rebellious factions sewing conflict and cession together as their goal towards a Communistic dystopia. Avoidance of law through denial of existence. The very name Antifa is a laugh, today’s example is illustrative where anarchy is employed. Anarchy: political disorder, disputes solved by force.
The current cycle of a fractured government and failing efficiency (unrecognized crippling debt, poorly functioning institutions and agencies), and the general malaise, contempt for government, distrust and antipathy of others are forcing change, and America is right in the middle of a change cycle.
“And when liberalism seems weak and people are impatient for change, authoritarianism or anarchism can seem suitable alternatives to many.”—Big Think, 11 Sep. 2025
There is indeed evidence of Ellis admitting he’s a racist according to Westword.
https://www.westword.com/news/boulder-tpusa-leader-assaulted-calls-himself-racist-video-40797835/
The allegations seem to be true.
There is indeed evidence of Ellis admitting he’s a racist according to Westword.
Can we agree that if Antifa can legitimately criminal assault those to be racists, then everyone else can similarly legitimately criminally assault anyone we believe is an Antifa communist terrorist and those who defend their criminal violence? One set of rules for everyone, X?
Earlier today , George X admitted in a post that Antifa is a violent terrorist organization who criminally commit physical violent assaults on people they allege is a racist/fascist/etc. No more allegations required
One step forward, Mad King GeorgeX, and then you take a dozen steps backwards.
LOL.. george where in the heck do you find these extreme left wing papers. Bet they lie as much as YOU do!
Lets see – nowhere in Turley’s article is there a reference to an Ellis,
Further what allegations are “true” ?
That some guy who may or may not have anything to do with this calls himself a racist in a video where he supports I beleive it was Lincolns plan to send blacks back to liberia ?
I do not care if we are dealing with an actual Nazi. You can not use violence in response to words you do not like.
You are a moron and no one should trust anything you post.
But even if Antifa targeted ACTUAL racists or fascists,
It is still criminal to respond to words with violence.
Absolutely those of us defending free speech often find ourselves defending horrible speech by worse people.
I have on occasion had to defend YOUR right to speak – that does not change the fact that your speech is often vile
So what is your point ?
You may not initiate violence against others.
There is no exception for racists real or imagined.
Professor Turley,
Yet again, you spread misinformation regarding Wray’s understanding of antifa. Perhaps you assume your readers are idiots and do not click on your hyperlinked sources. Maybe you are right. For those who have not, here is the full quote from Wray, via Fox News:
“Antifa is a real thing. It’s not a group or an organization. It’s a movement, or an ideology may be one way of thinking of it,” Wray said. “And we have quite a number — and I’ve said this quite consistently since my first time appearing before this committee — we have any number of properly predicated investigations into what we would describe as violent anarchist extremists and some of those individuals self-identify with Antifa.”
Based on the actual full quote, does anyone actually think Turley is accurately depicting Wray as a counterpoint to Goldman’s claim that Antifa does not exist as a single group?
TURLEY: “Law enforcement officials, like former FBI Director Christopher Wray, have long debunked deniers like Goldman. “Antifa is a real thing,” said Wray.”
Antifa is an ideology like white supremacy or Islamic fundamentalism, not an organization. There are organizations that adopt antifa ideas, like Rose City Antifa and Front Range Antifa, just like there are various groups that advocate for white supremacy (i.e., Proud Boys, neo-Nazi groups) and Islamic fundamentalism (Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Al-Qaeda, ISIS, etc.
There is no unifying group that controls these groups other than certain shared beliefs. The only connection Rose City Antifa and Front Range Antifa have is via the “Torch Network,” which appears to be a basic statement of ideological agreement among various subscribing groups. This is similar to the shared networks that loosely connect white supremacist or jihadist organizations. Yet, you would not call “white supremacy” or “islamic fundamentalism” a “group.”
Shame on you for spreading false information and fueling the Age of Rage.
Furthermore, this article fails to actually describe what was posted by Front Range Antifa about the TPUSA student. There was no advocacy of violence. It was just the following:
‘[____] is a student at the University of Colorado Boulder, a member of the white supremacist organizations Patriot Front & Active Club, and the Secretary of CU Boulder’s Turning Point USA (TPUSA) chapter.”
https://frontrangeantifa.noblogs.org/
This is no different from what TPUSA does itself to professors on campus.
Doxxing chills free speech and freedom of association, regardless of who is responsible. But Turley’s support for TPUSA doxxing while criticism for doxxing of TPUSA members is hypocritical and intellectually dishonest.
I do not advocate for any of these silly organizations, but if you are going to report and/or opine on this topic, please do not spread false information.
antifa-deniers are also heavy-duty election-deniers, and wild insurrectionists. Of course, they hide behind your kind of dismissive rhetoric. It’s called “the art of deception” Lao Tzu
Fortunately, you speak to your choir when you spew this “rhetoric,” and no one with a brain is fooled, but we do get to see the tactics.
Just a more sophisticated form of sealioning, in this case using false equivalencies to question the author’s honesty, knowledge, ethics, motives etc. to try to provoke an OT exchange. Not a great example though.
@-g
Yup.
Gaming, Trolling, Larping, in the name of nothing that exists—it’s all the same to you guys. ANY fact that doesn’t line up with your double-speak is called “false equivalence,” “sealioning,” “APPLE-DENYING”—this is called DISSEMBLING. While no advanced-brain exists within you for any deeper logic and morality, dissembling will do.
Yet again, nothing above “denies” the existence of antifa.
If you saw someone calling an apple an orange, and you corrected them, would you call that person an “apple-denier”?
If someone said, “Apples only exist as an idea, a concept, or an ideology,” then yes, I’d call that person an apple denier.
Classic bait-and-switch without answering the question.
Just making the hypothetical more relevant to the present discussion.
P.S. Look up the term “bait and switch.” You might learn what it means.
The relevant question is are their sufficient traits of organication to Antifa of DOJ/FBI to investigate and roll them up.
If I were a member of Antifa I would not be betting the answer is no.
I believe the journalist Lee Fang has written that as a young man in Washington DC he was part of Antifa.
I have seen you post this before. Nothing on Lee Fang’s Substack supports this. Can’t find anything else online either. Any evidence that Lee Fang was a member of a single Antifa umbrella organization rather than some geographically-specific group that espoused antifascist beliefs?
as OMFK noted – bait and switch.
Is there a single antifa umbrella organization ?
Not the question.
Is there sufficient connections for FBI to follow patterns of criminal conduct – that is the relevant question.
There is no Antifa – like there is no Mafia.
The FBI can still send you to jail for criminal conduct and can still roll up the smallor organzations and follow connections to others.
The objective is not to Find the Antia ruling counsel.
It is to jail people who initiate violence.
“Yet again, you spread misinformation regarding Wray’s understanding of antifa.”
Where have you been hiding, Dennis McIntyre? And no, we haven’t missed your vaudeville style Democrat Three Stooges Clown political shows.
Turley is a spokesman for billionaires.
??????????? like say biden or O-dumber..
“Antifa is a real thing. It’s not a group or an organization. It’s a movement, or an ideology may be one way of thinking of it,” Wray said
The context concealed by this poster: This quote was Wray’s excuse while being questioned under oath as to why he did not have the FBI investigating Antifa for their years of criminal and terrorist crimes. And this is why this apologist is not adding the rest of the context: this testimony now has Wray under referral for criminal indictment for perjury.
Same trustworthy Wray, by the way, who spent his entire time as FBI Director ordering the FBI to hide the criminality of Biden White House Crime LLC – while obstructing any and all investigations into Biden criminality by other federal law enforcement like the IRS.
Democrat commy, this schtick you’re attempting doesn’t work anymore: Nothing To See Here, Please Believe Us, Don’t Believe Your Lying Eyes™
First of all, even if all of that were true, Turley cannot use it to support his claim that Wray has “debunked” Goldman.
Secondly, you left off the rest of the quote: “….we have any number of properly predicated investigations into what we would describe as violent anarchist extremists and some of those individuals self-identify with Antifa.” So how could this be an “excuse” for NOT investigating Antifa? He is literally saying the FBI HAS investigated this activity.
Thirdly, there has been no referral for the criminal indictment of Wray. That is blatantly false. Kash Patel has accused him of misleading Congress regarding January 6 testimony, and the Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project has accused him of perjury relating to a Catholic Church memo. Neither concern Antifa.
More fake news.
Goldman’s claim i NOT that Antifa does not exist as a “single group” – like the rest of the left he claims that it does not exist at all.
Dos Wray rebut Goldman ? Yes, but Wray is not critical to this argument.
Is Antifa some heirarchical structure like the Boy Scouts ? No.
Are they organized political violence – absolutely, and they can be taken down as organizations.
And if as you claim they do not exist – then the FBI/DOJ will not be able to follow the organizational attributes that lead beyond individual actors.
000 00 00000000 NUL � Null character
Denying Antifa’s existence because it lacks a headquarters or CEO is like denying the existence of exoplanets because we can’t see them directly. Astronomers infer planets from the “wobbles” and shadows they cast on their stars—subtle but measurable effects that prove something real is there.
The same logic applies to Antifa. You don’t need a formal org chart to see its gravitational pull: coordinated groups using shared symbols, tactics, and messaging, producing very real consequences in the streets. The absence of hierarchy isn’t evidence of nonexistence; it’s evidence of design. Focusing on the lack of structure while ignoring the clear, observable effects is like staring at a moving star and insisting the unseen planet must be imaginary.
The difference is: Antifa deniers know Antifa is real but are gaslighting. Evidence and explanations are irrelevant.
That’s the real danger. The gaslighting isn’t just deception—it’s team strategy. For the true believers, politics has become a zero-sum game: if their side is wrong about one thing, the whole belief system starts to crack. So they double down, even when the evidence is obvious. It’s like those die-hard Cleveland fans who defended every losing season, or Charlie Brown charging at Lucy’s football again—hope and loyalty outweigh experience. Once politics turns into “my team versus yours,” truth stops being the goal and becomes just another player to bench when it’s inconvenient.
You’re looking for logic where there isn’t any logic nor alignment with science, principles , a foundation of any kind nor God. It’s all based on personal , individual inclinations and wants. It’s the logic of see it, take it. There isn’t a logic to lgbt for instance. It’s based on my preference and without duty to anything else. It’s chaos. Abrego García is based on nothing more than what García wants having nothing about a nation and the morality of consideration of others. It’s sickening and impossible.
That’s the problem with the dems. It’s intractable. Leave if possible.
That’s a fair point, and it ties directly to what Yuri Bezmenov warned decades ago. We may already be living with the consequences of his first stage—demoralization—where generations are conditioned to reject objective truth and moral consistency. Once that seed takes root, logic and evidence lose their persuasive power. The later stages—destabilization, crisis, and finally normalization—all follow naturally when a society no longer agrees on what is real or right.
That’s why gaslighting works so well. People who’ve been demoralized don’t need facts disproved—they only need their faith in truth itself eroded. Reversing that doesn’t start with political conversion; it starts with moral and intellectual reawakening.
OP here. I generally agree with this sentiment Olly, but at least for me, it does not apply. I am not a fan of leftwing or rightwing extremism. I am a supporter of small government and free speech and association. I don’t want either antifa or white supremacy to be labeled a “foreign terrorist group” because I support free speech.
[For context, I align more with traditional Bush-era GOP politics then the modern statism of its current leadership.]
This administration, with its antifa Executive Order, has essentially labeled an idea verboten, which is an attack of free speech. This isn’t blue vs red, this is about the freedom for idiots to espouse their dumb beliefs without the fear of government censorship.
This administration, with its antifa Executive Order, has essentially labeled an idea verboten . . .
False. The EO targets, not ideas, but criminal actions. Excerpt:
“All relevant executive departments and agencies shall utilize all applicable authorities to investigate, disrupt, and dismantle any and all illegal operations — especially those involving terrorist actions — conducted by Antifa or any person claiming to act on behalf of Antifa, or for which Antifa or any person claiming to act on behalf of Antifa provided material support.”
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/09/designating-antifa-as-a-domestic-terrorist-organization/
OMFK, are you the troll posting the idiotic italic/bold/Ariel ad hominems all over the Turley blog?
No that would be YOU!
No. Unlike you, I use a screen name as a courtesy to others, so they can see which comments are mine.
So it’s someone else whom you copy?
Exactly. The Executive Order doesn’t ban ideas—it targets criminal conduct. It distinguishes belief from action by focusing on those who organize or commit violence in Antifa’s name. That’s law enforcement, not censorship.
No, the EO painfully dances around the central problem that Antifa is not a group. It instead refers to it as an “enterprise,” a “campaign,” etc.
Designating Antifa as a “domestic terrorist organization” is equivalent to designating fascism or communism: It is a political statement, not a legally operative act.
To understand the purported designation of Antifa, and separate rhetoric from law, we need to look first to the designation authorities Congress has enacted. There are two principal federal designation regimes for terrorism threats: the Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) list under 8 U.S.C. § 1189 and the Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) program under Executive Order 13224, which is exercised under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA), 50 U.S.C. § 1701 et seq. Both regimes are built for foreign threats. The FTO statute applies only to “foreign organizations” designated by the secretary of state. IEEPA authorizes the president to block transactions when there is an “unusual and extraordinary threat” with a source “in whole or substantial part outside the United States.” Executive Order 13224 relies on that foreign nexus.
Likewise, the criminal “material support” offense that attaches to designations—18 U.S.C. § 2339B—makes it a crime to knowingly provide material support or resources to a designated FTO. By its terms, § 2339B is pegged to the FTO list and so does not reach purely domestic groups. There is another material support statute, 18 U.S.C. § 2339A, which prohibits support knowing or intending it to be used to commit a listed terrorism offense, but that provision does not turn on any designation. It relies on proof of intent and connection to specified crimes, not membership in or association with a named group.
The Supreme Court’s leading case on material support underscores the foreign/domestic line. In Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, the Court sustained the application of § 2339B to coordinated training and advice for designated foreign groups only after emphasizing Congress’s special prerogatives in foreign affairs and national security. Chief Justice John Roberts’s opinion cautioned that the Court’s reasoning should not be read to suggest Congress could impose the same ban on coordinated advocacy with domestic groups, a context where First Amendment protections are at their apex.
At home, the legal architecture stops short. When the focus turns inward, there is no federal authority to designate purely domestic groups as “terrorist organizations.” Congress has defined “domestic terrorism” in 18 U.S.C. § 2331(5), but that provision is definitional only; it creates no designation authority, imposes no listing, and adds no standalone criminal penalties. The definition does have specific legal effects in certain circumstances. For example, it establishes enhanced statutory maximums for select statutes, features as an element in at least one federal offense, and significantly impacts multijurisdictional search warrant authority.
Put simply, there is no statute that authorizes the federal government to designate a domestic organization as a terrorist entity with the legal consequences that attach to FTOs and SDGTs.
Against that backdrop, the White House’s document proceeds from a factual assumption that has long been contested: that “Antifa” is a discrete, structured “organization” capable of being designated, rather than a loose, localized set of networks and tactics. That assumption matters both for statutory authority and for constitutional analysis. Although no statute allows for the designation of a purely domestic group, the closest analogous statute (concerning the designation of foreign terrorist organizations) defines an organization, in part as “a group of persons … associated together with joint action on any subject.” As then-FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress in 2020, “Antifa” is “more of an ideology or a movement than an organization.”
That does not mean political violence committed by a group or an individual claiming to be “Antifa” is immune from prosecution. It does mean the government must use ordinary criminal law—conspiracy, assault, arson, weapons offenses, seditious conspiracy under 18 U.S.C. § 2384 where proved, and state-law crimes—to deal with it, case by case and with all attendant constitutional safeguards.
OP, I actually agree with much of that—government should never criminalize ideas, no matter how offensive. The right to speak, even foolishly, is essential to liberty. But free speech ends where organized violence begins. When an ideology transitions from expression to coordinated intimidation, destruction, or assault, it stops being speech and becomes conduct.
The distinction matters: Antifa’s danger isn’t in its philosophy but in the repeated, organized use of force to silence others. Labeling that conduct for what it is—terrorism or domestic extremism—is not censorship; it’s law enforcement. Protecting speech also means protecting citizens’ ability to speak without fear of violent reprisal. That balance is what keeps a free society from becoming an ungoverned one.
I have no problem with what you said – except that what you claim has happened – this repeated, organized use of force – has not happened. When it does, I am on board with the FBI going after its proponents.
The debate over whether it’s “organized” completely misses the point. Organization doesn’t require bylaws or a headquarters — it’s defined by coordinated, repeatable action. And that pattern is undeniable: the same tactics, symbols, and communication methods showing up city after city. Even if someone wants to argue about structure, the repeatability alone proves intent. At some point, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck — it’s a duck. And Trump’s Executive Order is going after the duck that keeps showing up in city after city.
Yet again, nothing above is a denial of Antifa’s existence.
Antifa IS real, as an ideology or movement. Not. A. Group.
If you saw someone calling an apple an orange, and you corrected them, would you call that person an “apple-denier”?
Nothing above denies “Antifa’s existence.”
Nor do I think one should deny the existence of white supremacy or Islamic fundamentalism.
What is confusing is the need to label an ideology an organization.
Analogizing this to exoplanets suggests you missed the point. Stubbornly calling an exoplanet without evidence a planet even though it exists outside of our solar system would be the more apt analogy here.
There is no evidence of a single Antifa organization or group. It is a movement or ideology.
You are right that Antifa is not a single, centralized corporation. The dispute is not about hierarchy. It is about whether self-identified Antifa cells function as organizations in practice. In law and in sociology, an organization does not require a national office or a CEO. A network qualifies when it shows capacity, coordination, and continuity.
Antifa meets that bar. There are named chapters, shared symbols and manuals, common recruitment and messaging channels, coordinated doxxing and direct-action campaigns, and repeated cross-city patterning of tactics. That is organizational behavior, even if the structure is flat and fluid.
The exoplanet analogy fits precisely because indirect evidence is still evidence. You do not need a telescope image of a planet to know it exists when you observe the same periodic wobble across time. Likewise, you do not need a central committee to recognize an organized network when you see the same playbook, signals, and outcomes recur across locales. Calling it “only an ideology” ignores the observable coordination that gives the ideology force in the real world.
OLLY, in what state can a entity legally exist without identifiable management? State laws typically require a company (whether corporation or LLC) to have a president and secretary. It also must have a registered address and agent.
Regardless, if you are referring to the legal definition of “foreign terrorist organization” (FTO), there are several problems:
– clearly, Rose City Antifa and Front Range Antifa groups are not foreign. This is WHY the designation of Antifa ideology as an international “group” matters. Inaccurately calling it an international organization makes purely domestic activity suddenly an international operation, which strains credulity.
– and the rest of the definition is “a group of persons … associated together with joint action on any subject.” There has been no evidence of any joint action by localized groups.
The issue isn’t whether Antifa exists as a legal entity but whether it operates as an organized one. No one is suggesting there’s a corporate charter or headquarters; the coordination is functional, not formal. Groups like Rose City Antifa and Front Range Antifa don’t need bylaws to act collectively—they share symbols, tactics, communication networks, and a common ideology that produces consistent, coordinated outcomes.
The same logic applies to the international question. Saying Antifa can’t be “international” because it lacks a central hierarchy misses the point entirely. Its ideology and methods appear across borders with near-identical execution—from Portland to Paris—because the coordination happens through shared doctrine, not corporate structure.
Dismissing that as coincidence is like claiming jihadist movements weren’t international before al-Qaeda filed incorporation papers. Extremist networks rarely announce themselves with stationery and titles; they reveal themselves through common ideology, repeated tactics, and deliberate patterns of violence. That’s organization by behavior, not by bureaucracy.
Let’s use a purely domestic terrorist as an example. Ted Kaczynski, the Unibomber, was a domestic terrorist, but his ideology was not domestic. He borrowed heavily from French sociologist, Jacques Ellul’s book, The Technological Society, which argued that technology operates as an autonomous force beyond human control. He also cited Desmond Morris, a British zoologist’s book, The Human Zoo to develop ideas on human psychological maladaptation.
Labeling “antifa” an international terrorist organization based on the existence of Parisians who hold similar beliefs would be equivalent to viewing the Unibomber as an agent of a foreign terrorist organization.
Does that make any sense to you?
The problem isn’t simply a lack of formal corporate structure; it is that there is no evidence that anything other than shared beliefs connect these localized groups, whether in Portland or Paris. Without that, you are basically calling the Unibomber an agent of worldwide terrorism.
I understand the comparison, but it doesn’t hold. Kaczynski acted entirely alone; his writings influenced no coordinated network, shared logistics, or tactical manual. Antifa, by contrast, demonstrates repeatable coordination—shared symbols, uniform tactics, online communication hubs, and synchronized “direct action” campaigns. That isn’t philosophical overlap; it’s operational mimicry.
The point about being “international” isn’t that Paris and Portland report to the same headquarters. It’s that the same ideology reliably produces the same organized behavior across borders. That’s what made early jihadist movements international before anyone had heard of al-Qaeda. The cooperation was behavioral, not bureaucratic.
So yes, the Unabomber had foreign intellectual influences, but no network replicated his methods in organized fashion. Antifa’s influence, by contrast, does replicate—by design. That’s the difference between a lone-actor terrorist and a transnational movement.
OLLY,
Great comments and able to prove your points! Antifa operates just like other terrorists groups do. As single groups, disconnected from other groups in case one group is compromised/arrested, they cannot compromise the other groups. But as you aptly point out, they “demonstrates repeatable coordination—shared symbols, uniform tactics, online communication hubs, and synchronized “direct action” campaigns. That isn’t philosophical overlap; it’s operational mimicry.”
From their universal “black bloc” uniforms, the use of umbrellas, their commonly used flag, tactics like using lasers in attempts to blind LEOs to name a few. Look at how the guy in CO who assaulted the TPUSA guy, dressed in black bloc. Just like antifa in Portland or antifa in Chicago.
Exactly, Upstate. That decentralized cell structure is what makes Antifa both durable and deceptive. Each group can act independently, yet the uniform imagery and tactics create the illusion of a single, ever-present force. The black bloc gear, umbrellas, and lasers aren’t just tools — they’re psychological weapons. The uniform anonymity projects power and unity; the masked faces and coordinated moves intimidate opponents while denying law enforcement easy identification.
It’s classic insurgent design: compartmentalize for security, synchronize for impact, and use propaganda optics to magnify strength. The same handful of tactics repeated from Portland to Chicago to Boulder sends one message — “we’re everywhere, and we can’t be stopped.” That’s not philosophical overlap; it’s psychological warfare disguised as activism.
OLLY, you may not realize the following because you’re on the west coast and perhaps never had to interact with KKK members like I have. The Ku Klux Klan was not a centralized organization. In fact it existed only as a name, an idea, and organized into independent chapters at the local level where each chapter did as they pleased without interference from other chapters. Even Wikipedia admits this:
The Klan was organized into numerous independent chapters across the Southern United States. Each chapter was autonomous and highly secretive about membership and plans. Members made their own, often colorful, costumes: robes, masks and pointed hats, designed to be terrifying and to hide their identities.
The KKK had no organizational structure above the chapter level. However, there were similar groups across the South that adopted similar goals
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ku_Klux_Klan
It is no coincidence that ANTIFA and KKK use the same modus operandi, e.g. robes, masks, helmets, designed to be terrifying and to hide their identities, etc. They are 2 sides of the same coin. Who defended the KKK? The same folks defending ANTIFA.
connect the dots
I attended college in the Deep South. I, an immigrant and practicing Roman Catholic, with a thick accent when I spoke English and brown skin, had to fear the KKK would come and find me on campus. They had lynched a black man in the South that year, and the Jesuits on my campus told me not to worry. I worried anyways. It was quite terrifying actually at the ripe age of 17.
KKK = ANTIFA
Estovir, That’s a powerful comparison, and your experience captures the point perfectly. The KKK operated through autonomous local cells bound by shared ideology, imagery, and intimidation tactics—precisely what makes Antifa’s structure so recognizable. Both rely on anonymity, fear, and moral self-justification to excuse violence in the name of a “higher” cause.
Whether the hood is white or the mask is black, the method is the same: erase identity, magnify menace, and silence opposition. The labels change, but the impulse doesn’t. That’s why this isn’t about left or right—it’s about the same old machinery of fear being repainted for a new generation.
Olly, you have an impressive grasp of why Antifa operates in a decentralized manner, an advantage when compared to the KKK. The KKK was originally formed as a hierarchical organization after the Civil War and then re-emerged again in the early 1900s. Most of us remember Robert Byrd, the Democratic Majority leader in the Senate. Previous to that, he served as an Exalted Cyclops in the KKK.
Hmmm, that is another similarity to Democrat leaders of today, they support another KKK type organization while trying to distance themselves from the violence.
Thanks, SM — that’s kind of you to say. Honestly though, Antifa’s behavior really isn’t all that complicated. If an alien landed here and watched long enough, they’d figure it out in a day. People lose a shared sense of right and wrong, and they start defining themselves by what they hate instead of what they stand for.
Antifa’s not some mysterious organization — it’s just human nature stripped of restraint and moral grounding. Chaos starts to look like conviction when people convince themselves that rage equals righteousness.
Estovir, that is not correct.
The KKK was organized and known for its hierarchy for almost a century. I grew up in an area of northern Florida, where a rival high school was Forrest High School, because it was named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, the first Grand Wizard of the KKK. There were subsequent leaders like William Joseph Simmons. It became more decentralized after World War II.
Who is the Forrest of Antifa?
…except there is no evidence of an organized network among localized antifa chapters/cells that has collectively carried out violent activity. Some tactics are shared between groups, such as black blocs, and certain individuals communicate through social media and Signal. Others fly anti-fascist symbols, but these diverge widely. Some use two flags of the Antifaschistische Aktion while others fly the three arrows of the Iron Front.
Turley likes to reference the Mark Bray Antifa Handbook, but it is not a tactical manual; rather, it is a historical and philosophical study on anti-fascist movements.
Importantly, none of the available information on the tactics or communication among localized groups can be differentiated from the shared tactics, symbols, and communication used between white supremacist organizations. Many fly the Confederate Flag, use Neo-Nazi symbols and ideology. A new development is the use “Active Clubs” to create a decentralized coordination: https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/09/02/active-clubs-are-white-supremacys-new-dangerous-frontier/#:~:text=September%202%2C%202025%204:30,the%20transnational%20terrorist%20group%20Terrorgram. This is almost exactly like antifa, yet we do not consider the underlying ideology a “group.”
I appreciate your thoughtful points, but I think this is where the distinction between ideology and operational behavior really matters. Shared symbols alone don’t make a group, but consistent coordination across geography and time does. Antifa’s tactical convergence — uniform dress, black bloc discipline, identical direct-action methods, synchronized social-media mobilization, and timing with national events — reflects more than cultural diffusion. That is network behavior, even if the network is loose and adaptive.
The white-supremacist “Active Clubs” you mentioned actually prove the same point: extremist movements can adopt decentralized structures precisely to avoid detection while still functioning as organized entities. Their shared ideology becomes the operating system that allows local cells to replicate the same behavior independently. Antifa’s model mirrors that logic — autonomy without isolation.
So yes, Mark Bray’s Antifa Handbook is a historical text, but it also codifies a methodology and worldview that current adherents cite and operationalize. The absence of formal hierarchy doesn’t erase organization; it redefines it. Both Antifa and the Active Clubs show that 21st-century extremist groups organize horizontally rather than vertically — but the coordination and intent remain unmistakably collective.
So you would be fine with – god forbid – President AOC labeling white supremacist groups Foreign Terrorist Organizations by fiat?
That’s not a comparable scenario. The Executive Order doesn’t criminalize belief; it targets conduct that meets the legal definition of terrorism. If a future administration tried to outlaw “being” anything — white supremacist, Marxist, anarchist — that would indeed be unconstitutional.
The point is that Antifa’s actions have repeatedly crossed from ideology into coordinated violence. That’s what triggers law enforcement authority, not the label itself. So if any group, regardless of politics, engages in the same pattern of organized violent acts, the same standard should apply. Equal application of the law protects everyone — including speech we dislike.
It exists as lgbt exists without a hierarchy. It simply is. Is that what you mean? The belief is destroy what was. Unburden what was burdensome word salad.
KBJ makes zero sense. It’s nonsense.
Follow the money.
“It’s time to stop talkin’ and start chalkin’!”
– Chick Hearn, Lakers Sportscaster
Normal, peaceful, civilized Americans have been far too tolerant. There will come a point at which they will have had their fill of Leftist nonsense. But keep pushing, right?
GeorgeX held a self-reveal with this ANTIFA only attacks those who are clearly fascists such as white supremacists, neo-nazis, and anti-semites.
For the very first time GeorgeX admits that his fellow Democrat fascists in Antifa that he defends are criminals! He admits that they launch criminal physical attacks on those they and GeorgeX put their carefully chosen targeting labels on.
And who are these people that GeorgeX claims he has identified as clearly fascists such as white supremacists, neo-nazis, and anti-semites?
Well, that’s obvious: EVERY SINGLE police officer, Homeland Security, Border Patrol, ICE agent etc that George’s homies in Antifa have assaulted since Obama’s Reign Of Error began allowing it, starting in 2008.
Every single one of the LEOs they attacked from the first day are white supremacists, neo-nazis, and anti-semites.
The worst being those LEOs who are black or Latino officers – race traitors!
I doubt the kind of globalist-leftism that drove this stupid attack is going away.
Our major coastal metros no longer see themselves as American. Like Antifa, they see themselves as part of a loosely-organized coalition, a group of globalist-leftist metros all over the world. They get rich off of uncontrolled international trade and immigration–cheap goods, cheap labor, and foreign rent-a-mobs–and that perceived economic interest still prevails, and again like Antifa, they operate by a common playbook: low-intensity warfare and legal obstruction, not peaceful protest. Antifa is just one part of it.
The attacks on ICE facilities are only different from Fort Sumter by degree. It’s a violent movement that has a similar dynamic to the antebellum planters who precipitated the Civil War. Those planters were also more aligned with foreign trade and labor exploitation.
If these globalist-leftists can be politically marginalized for the next ten years, there’s hope, but Kamala, easily the biggest idiot to run for the Whitehouse other than the idiot who previously occupied it, still got 49% of the vote. That 49% has to come down if politics and the law are to succeed at holding this nation together.
If that 49% does not come down, it’s a matter of time before we are forced to confront the reality of being seven countries instead of one.
This is the problem with the whole globalist-leftist program. With China and Russian licking their chops, growing anarchy in the West invites worldwide disaster. There’s little doubt China is dark-money financing a fifth column of globalist-leftists in North America for exactly this purpose. The temptation to resort to strong men to stop the chaos will become overwhelming. Trump will be a pussycat by comparison.
The Trump administration is squarely for maintaining the full Union under the Constitution, his gaslighting critics notwithstanding. So far, his messaging and forcefulness have been admirable. My biggest concern with his previous administration was that he seemed reluctant to confront the anarchy. He apparently has recognized that mistake and adjusted. I wish him luck. He’ll still need it.
@ Diogenes
Couldn’t have said it better, great comment. This is a globalist phenomena, and make no mistake, it is being propagated by wealth, they want caste society or a return to serfdom because they honestly believe they are inherently superior, even though they’ve ridden on the backs of others to get where they are – what America inherently represents is abhorrent to them and standing in their way – across the globe. Europe never *really* abandoned the Feudal system, not really, even with historical revolutions. The power was never transferred to the people in these places.
One caveat I would add though, is that of that 49% that voted for Kamala, many of those people are such that haven’t paid attention to diddly squat for decades, are not politically informed as many of us are here, they do not follow these things of their own accord because they are interested, and still think they are voting against discrimination and for the working class; they fail to see their own privilege because by some miracle, events of the past 20 years haven’t touched them much, personally, at home, in ways that interfered with their status quo (which ironically has been granted to them by what they now oppose in a Constitutional Republic). In summary: they are checked out, they are preternaturally immature in this regard. It would take a disaster of proportions that may not actually come if we hold the line for the ten years or more you elucidate and actually right the ship, and they will not stop being reticent, because they will have never known anything was ever wrong. This is already the case with the Obama crowd, and it is part of what got us here, as are the old JFK/Vietnam dems that have been living in their insulation since then (vote blue no matter who).
We need to remind the modern left as often as possible, that in America, they work for *us*, not the other way around, and we will not acquiesce, because thanks to our Constitution and Bill of Rights – we do not have to. It may be ugly, but we still have a chance.
And that percentage of dem voters will remain oblivious, regardless. And regarding Antifa – these idiot kids are too young and stupid to know that we’ve very much seen it all before and will not have it again. They are about as rebellious and innovative as syphilis, and about as capable and smart.
James writes, “This is already the case with the Obama crowd, and it is part of what got us here, as are the old JFK/Vietnam dems that have been living in their insulation since then (vote blue no matter who).”
James, I know the type: Woodstock boomers, the bane and embarrassment of my generation 🙁
@Diogenes
I can say the same for some of my own peers. It is embarrassing, and at times maddening. As has been said, the few have often carried the many, and I don’t see that ending anytime soon, personally. But thank goodness for, ‘We few, we happy few. . . .’ 🤷🏻♂️
They want to be rid of Israel and JHVH.
If only the victim had carried a concealed weapon permit and a Glock. The victim could have shot the masked assailant dead though he would have never died since he is only an idea. amiright!
Nothing screams “it’s just an idea” like beautiful women spinning in circles to reveal truly buxom beauties in skimpy 1970s outfits like Lynda Carter’s Wonder Woman. If she existed on campuses today, she would make ANTIFA woke students spin out of control into madness
Taylor swift
OT
SNAP enjoys no legal basis in the Constitution.
This unconstitutional charity program is promoted by liberals and conservatives alike.
They all proclaim across the land that they love “our democracy” and “our Constitution” and then proceed to destroy and violate them flagrantly.
OT
Super lawyer, Cleta Mitchell, has posted this showing that the state lawfare against Trump and everyone associated with MAGA did NOT originate at the state level organically but was pushed by the weaponized Biden WH and DOJ.
https://x.com/CletaMitchell/status/1983273680454156795
These folks need prosecution.
She doesn’t mention it but I have here before that it seems vicious that black officials were used as cannon fodder in this attack on law and decency.
The Federalist has more.
https://thefederalist.com/2025/10/29/exclusive-new-lawsuit-seeks-doj-records-on-biden-era-officials-role-in-manhattans-get-trump-lawfare
Doxxing is an uncivilized, militant, and dark-hearted form of public speech.
We have tort laws that could be used to deter it. For instance, defamation lawsuits. In this case, the Antifa poster published a photographic likeness of the person being doxxed without a signed release (permission). If we had
internet-speed lawsuit processes for dealing with defamation, privacy violations and public frauds, we could be getting a handle on this abuse of free speech.
Why didn’t Prof. Turley suggest defamation? I’m not about to mind-read him. I just want him to say something proactive about how we can deal with doxxing using the legal system. It doesn’t need to be something that currently exists…it could be an idea for sensible reform.
Because, none of us wants to be doxxed by militants. Only a tiny sliver of activist-zealots stoop that low. So, how about majority rule?
“Nazism and Communism imagine themselves as exact opposites. They are at each other’s throats wherever they exist all over the world. They actually breed each other; for the reaction against Communism is Nazism, and beneath Nazism or Fascism Communism stirs convulsively.”, Winston Churchill
Antifa is fascism and communism masquerading as ” anti fascism”. What a bad joke. Antifa is Klux Klan night riders suppressing free speech. What will Antifa do next lynch freed escapees from the Democrat party plantation? Murder the children of freedom loving Americans? Antifa is against our free speech. Antifa thugs are sneaky night riders and murders. Free people must exercise their 2nd amendment rights and use deadly force when attacked by Antifa night riders.
“Antifa is Klux Klan night riders suppressing free speech.”
Perfect description of these thugs although Storm Troopers is also an apt description of these fascist pigs.
The American fertility rate is in a “death spiral.” More Americans die than are born. Soon there will be no Americans left in America. What is an American woman’s duty to her country?
first you have to have men who are attracted to women and copulate with women. You dont look like the type that desires women so there you go
Absolutely brutal retort!
Hear, hear!