The administration is convinced that these protests aren’t spontaneous, and because of NSPM-7, the FBI has to prioritize collecting intelligence to show that. Serafini said that a particular focus of the FBI agents was whether the violence at the protest had been premeditated; and he when he told them it all seemed spontaneous, they implied he was lying.

Per Serafini:

“They asked me if the violence (rocks, paint balloons) seemed spontaneous or premeditated. I told them it seemed spontaneous once the ICE agents escalated. They brought up that some protestors showed up with riot shields, so they questioned why they would bring shields if violence wasn’t premeditated. And they kept drilling me on the fact that I showed up alone, [that I didn’t] remember where I saw the flyer, and didn’t know anybody there. They told me that’s unusual and pretty suspicious — as if I was holding back information about whoever organized the protest. They kept insinuating that I was lying to them.”

“They showed me photos of several protestors … and tried to get information on them. They said ICE officers were badly injured and that these were the real suspects they needed info on. I told them I had no idea who they were. They seemed frustrated by that, but it’s the truth.”

According to Serafini, the two FBI agents showed him photos of himself at the protest as well as several other protesters — people he knew nothing about. The agents asked him for his cell phone, but he refused. The questioning lasted about an hour. Serafini said they left him with a chilling message: that they couldn’t guarantee this would be the last time they saw him.

  • darkcalling [comrade/them, she/her]@hexbear.net
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    2 days ago

    The FBI seemed more interested in who was behind the protest than the protest itself, with the agents repeatedly asking about who had produced the protest signs, he explained.

    I fear they going to use NSPM-7 to go after PSL and use the signs PSL often provides for protests and everything else as proof positive they are in fact antifa HQ and try and do a RICO type thing where they hold them responsible for all violence at every protest. Seems stuff like this is a prelude to that, building a kind of case. The most insulting thing may be they’ll call PSL “anarchists”.

    Fact is they’re the only thing close to an organization even tangentially related to real protests (not DNC astro-turf) to really go after. Though perhaps that would be at ends with their real purpose here which is declaring antifa a real but nebulous group so they can charge anyone as part of it. PSL’s problem I suppose for that role is that they have clear membership structure and duties so it would be a bit more difficult. Hopefully they flail around and do nothing but intimidate some folks.