How the Prairieland Case Could Criminalize Dissent

Jarrod Shanahan

Jacobin

02/18/2026

The Prairieland case has emerged as the latest laboratory in which to test aggressive prosecutions against the administration’s enemies. “First time ever: the FBI arrested Antifa-aligned anarchist violent extremists and terrorism charges have been brought,” tweeted FBI director Kash Patel. “Under President Trump’s new authorities we’ve made 20+ arrests.” They won’t be the last.The creative and highly theoretical claims by the state around Prairieland risk producing precedents. The theory that the whole demo was bait — for which the indictments themselves give no supporting evidence — is but one. The mere use of Signal is recast as evidence of criminal enterprise, while deleting someone from a group chat has become “material support for terrorism.” Fireworks are “explosives.” A home where friends congregate is a “staging area.” Dressing in black with a face covering is “designed . . . to aid and abet those members engaged in illegal acts.” The defendants are accused of possessing “insurrectionary materials called ‘zines,’” and defendant Daniel “Des” Rolando is charged with “corruptly concealing a document or record and conspiracy to conceal documents” for transporting a box of them.The State of Texas, which has filed charges alongside the DOJ, defines Antifa as an enterprise in which members are “associated through ideology.” In other words, no real association can be proven. But if this precedent stands, nobody will be safe from guilt by association. There is no publicly available evidence supporting the state’s claim that everyone at Prairieland acted in concert to execute a planned ambush. But they might not even have to prove that. This is an experiment aimed at setting a precedent.

The best evidence for the innocence of the Prairieland defendants comes from the DOJ’s case against them. In an excerpt from the “Core Chat,” where the ambush was supposedly planned, defendants discussed whether to bring rifles at all. One worries that “rifles might make the situation more hot.” Another argues for bringing rifles, on the grounds that they will make the cops “back off.” Is this the planning of an armed ambush? Do any of the actions of the accused, besides being armed in Texas, suggest they had planned to go down in a hail of gunfire? And why go through all this trouble just to shoot an Alvarado cop?

Moreover, the FBI’s access to private Signal chats, where planning allegedly took place, has apparently yielded nothing that backs up its version of the case. The DOJ emphasizes multiple times that Signal messages can be deleted, perhaps to preemptively explain why their story has no basis in the available evidence.

All that’s left is the specter of “Antifa” and the dangerous ideology that supposedly holds it together. If the murders of Good and Pretti had not been caught on tape, we could expect as much to be said about them — and anyone they could have been connected to. The precedent established in Texas will not remain there but will reverberate throughout the country.

“I think people need to be aware,” concludes Sanchez, “that it’s not just the defendants on trial.”

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