Andy Ngo to Newsmax: Guilty Pleas Show Antifa Operates as a 'Cell'

Guilty pleas entered by defendants in the Prairieland, Texas, ICE ambush shooting show that Antifa is not an ideology, but is what President Donald Trump designated in September as a domestic terrorist organization, according to Andy Ngo, senior editor at The Post Millennial, on Newsmax Saturday.

"As part of the plea deals, they agreed to a set of stipulated facts," Ngo, also the author of the best seller "Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy," told Newsmax's "America Right Now." "They admitted that they aided an Antifa terror cell."

Seven defendants in the July 4 Prairieland ICE facility shooting have pleaded guilty to a federal charge of providing material support to terrorists, which is unprecedented at the federal level for self-identified Antifa members, said Ngo.

"Last week, two suspects pleaded guilty in Texas in regards to the July 4th Prairieland ICE facility ambush shooting that brings the total number of convicts so far to seven," Ngo said.

Ngo said the most recent guilty pleas included stipulations that the defendants helped an "Antifa terror cell" and assisted an alleged ringleader who was on the run in the Dallas area.

Court documents describe the defendants as operating in an organized manner, countering prior characterizations that the movement is not structured, Ngo said.

"If you look at the set of stipulated facts that the seven convicts have agreed to, it’s quite detailed," Ngo said, adding that the defendants admitted they "functioned as a cell" and had associations with the Socialist Rifle Association.

During the Biden administration, then-FBI Director Christopher Wray described Antifa as an ideology or movement rather than a formal organization, but Ngo said the Texas case includes admissions that support a more organized picture of how members operate.

Ngo also described what he said is a shift in street-level activity in Portland, Oregon, since Trump took office and signed executive actions focused on political violence.

"Looking to Portland, Oregon, where I’m originally from, they’ve been very quiet outside the ICE facility," Ngo said, describing prior incidents in which activists would "attack the building and try to set it on fire."

Ngo said the group has been absent for months, which he attributed to the administration’s crackdown.

"I think they’re just trying to buy time right now and hope that Democrats get into power so that then they would have a federal government that would essentially be turning a blind eye to far-left political violence," he said.

Asked about identifying funders, Ngo said tracking financial support is difficult because Antifa is not a centralized organization and support can move through legal channels.

"It’s very complicated because we’re not talking about a central organization," Ngo said. "You have to think of it as a movement."

Ngo said funding is often routed through nonprofit groups with benign-sounding names, making it difficult to connect donors and intermediaries to on-the-ground violence.

"A lot of how the Antifa funding works in the U.S. is through entirely lawful means," he said. "They work through nonprofit groups that fund various projects that have innocent-sounding names."

Ngo also pointed to actions outside the United States, saying the State Department recently designated several European Antifa-linked groups as foreign terrorist organizations, which he said would make providing material support a criminal offense.

GET TODAY NEWSMAX+:

NEWSMAX is the fastest-growing cable news channel in America with more than 30 million people watching!

Reuters Institute reports NEWSMAX is one of the top news brands in the U.S.

You need to watch NEWSMAX today.

Get it with great shows from Rob Schmitt, Greta Van Susteren, Greg Kelly, Carl Higbie, Rob Finnerty – and many more!

Find the NEWSMAX channel on your cable system – Go Here Now

BEST OFFER:

Sign up for NEWSMAX+ and get NEWSMAX, our streaming channel NEWSMAX2 and our military channel World at War.

Find hundreds of shows, movies and specials.

Even get Jon Voight’s special series and President Trump’s comedy programs and much more!

Watch NEWSMAX+ on your smartphone or home TV app.

Watch NEWSMAX anytime, anywhere!