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Unraveling the mysteries of Antifa
Patel said one area where the FBI has made rapid progress is the tracking of financing and command structures of anarchist groups like Antifa that have fomented unrest in American cities, attacks on Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents rounding up illegal immigrants and antisemitic movements on college campuses.
He said there are indications that some support may come from overseas enemies and U.S. nonprofit groups that have tax exemptions from the IRS.
"Look, the thing I can tell you is that money doesn't lie, and the thing we're doing at the FBI is following the money," Patel explained. "And thanks to President Trump, we now have Antifa designated, rightfully so, as a domestic terror organization. And we have had multiple investigations going on."
Patel said those probes are "mapping out the money, and we are using social media and the influencers that the President had here just this last week, because they're the ones on the ground, getting us ground level intelligence, because law enforcement isn't able to enter these spaces, and these people are brave enough to do it."
Patel's comments came as a federal grand jury on Wednesday night indicted two people allegedly tied to Antifa on terrorism charges for an attack in July on an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Texas.
The two individuals, identified as Cameron Arnold and Zachary Evetts, were charged with providing material support for terrorism, attempting to murder federal and assisting officers and discharging firearms during attempted murders.
You can read that indictment here:
Antifa indictment
Entirely new program and division planned
That indictment undercut the argument made by many Democrats and even some journalists who have argued that Antifa is not a group, but rather just a mere ideology. Most notably, Keith Ellison, attorney general of Minnesota, recently said that "nobody even knows what it is," but conservative pundits were quick to point to receipts, such as Powerlineblog.com, which published a photo of Ellison proudly holding a book in 2018 titled, "Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook."
Patel told Just the News that the effort tracking Antifa funding has become so important that "we've created an entire new program and division dedicated to rooting out the money that is funding these operations, whether it's U.S. based or internationally."
"Someone is paying for this. These are organized acts of violence, fully funded by people who don't even live necessarily in these communities, showing up in the dozens with the same placards, the same helmets, the same riot gear. Someone's paying for it, and we're on the verge of finding that out next to these new authorities," he added.
The FBI's top boss detailed that these probes have found fascinating connections, including between traditional anarchist groups like Antifa and transgender activist groups that are incubating in places like social media platforms favored by gamers.
Patel: "Social media is wildly out of control"
"I think there's going to be some crossover, for sure," he said. "But what that raises in my mind is a problem that I've been trying to tackle for a long time: social media is wildly out of control. I mean our kids are allowed to go on these gaming platforms for fair purposes, gaming."
"But then, unfortunately, you have the child predators that go on these gaming platforms. You have Antifa that goes on these gaming platforms and no one's overseeing them, because our kids aren't monitored while they're on these platforms, and they're taking advantage of lawful use of these mechanisms to make basically an anarchist system that wants to take down the United States government," he said.
"And that's why this threat is so real, and that's why we in this White House and this administration are so fervently tackling it with every resource we have at the FBI," he said.
Patel confirmed that he is similarly concerned that foreign enemies from Iran, China, Cuba and Venezuela may also be involved in creating a toxic brew of radicalization in this network.
"I think they were, before President Trump sealed the border, they were coming in by the thousands, these criminals, and they were taking advantage of America and our resources that are supposed to be for our citizens who are lawfully here," he said.