On June 16, fifteen people were charged in connection with an Antifa network that allegedly assaulted federal officers, conducted interstate stalking campaigns, and operated a shooting club. One of them worked for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. His name is Alec Stewart. His title was Assistant Wildlife Manager.
State benefits. Government pension track. Taxpayer-funded salary.
Stewart's role at DNR sounds about as threatening as a park ranger handing out trail maps. But the federal charges paint a different picture entirely.
The group is called Direct Action Minnesota — DAMN, for short. The charges against its members include conspiracy to impede or injure a federal officer, interstate stalking, interstate threats, solicitation to commit a crime of violence, assault on a federal officer, and destruction of government property. That's not a protest movement. That's a criminal enterprise with a LinkedIn page.
The federal indictment describes DAMN as "a decentralized coalition of working-class people engaged in various forms of community defense against the current Federal Occupation." Read that language. "Federal Occupation." These aren't people upset about a zoning variance. They view the Trump administration as an enemy force — and one of them was drawing a state paycheck while allegedly fighting it.
DAMN operated alongside the Black Cat Worker's Collective, which federal prosecutors described as "a Minneapolis-based Antifa affinity group committed to militant class struggle, community self-defense, and revolution." Revolution. The DOJ's word, not mine.
The indictment also references a Ray Rainbolt Memorial Shooting Club connected to the network. So the complete picture is this: revolutionary ideology, organized interstate criminal activity, alleged assault on federal law enforcement, a shooting club, and a member on Minnesota's government payroll. Under Democrat Governor Tim Walz.
The standard defense is that an employee's political activities on their own time are their own business. That works in most contexts. It doesn't work here. These aren't political activities. They're federal conspiracy charges involving alleged violence against federal officers and interstate stalking. There's a difference between volunteering for a campaign and allegedly coordinating attacks on law enforcement.
We spent years being told Antifa was "just an idea." Ideas don't get indicted on 15-person conspiracy charges. Ideas don't have shooting clubs. And ideas don't collect a government paycheck while allegedly plotting against federal officers.