DOJ Just Convicted Several People of Imaginary Antifa Terrorism
Opening Arguments
Opening Arguments Media LLC
4.3 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 20 March 2026
⏱️ 57 minutes
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Summary
OA1245 - Federal prosecutors have just secured the first convictions in US history in which the Department of Justice has brought charges relating to associations with “Antifa,” an organization which demonstrably does not exist. We take a closer look at the plight of the eight defendants convicted on charges relating to a noise protest outside of an ICE detention center in Prarieland, Texas to break down the unusual legal basis for this case, understand how protesters were cast as terrorists, and what this all means for the future of American dissent.
Then in better news, we take a closer look at the recent bar complaint against one of Trump’s favorite lawyers (and our favorite MAGA characters) and AG Pam Bondi’s efforts to claim that the feds can hold up similar investigations brought by state regulators. Matt explains why this proposed rule is not only obviously illegal but doomed to fail before providing some news you can use in today’s footnote: the official OA guide on how to get away with a $100 million jewelry heist.
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Superseding Indictment #1 in United States v. Arnold (2025)
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Jury verdict in in United States v. Arnold (2025)
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“Meet the Defendants,” DFW Defense Committee website
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“Specification of Charges in the matter of Edward R. Martin Jr.” District of Columbia Board on Professional Responsibility (3/6/2026)
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“Review of State Bar Complaints and Allegations Against Department of Justice Attorneys,” Federal Register (3/5/2026)
Check out the OA Linktree for all the places to go and things to do!
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is the first case of the government demonstrably treating opposition as an organized terror network. |
| 0:14.0 | And he writes, it has come to my attention reliably that Georgetown Law School continues to teach and promote DEI. |
| 0:23.7 | This is unacceptable. |
| 0:32.2 | Hello and welcome to opening arguments. |
| 0:33.7 | This is episode 1245. |
| 0:35.2 | I'm Thomas Smith out over there's real life immigration attorney. |
| 0:37.4 | Matt Cameron, how are you doing? I am absolutely freezing. Our building decided to do spring, because it's March 18th, and it's spring in Boston, apparently. Oh, so the AC is getting you. No, they just turned everything off. Yeah, we're just sitting here in the cold. Oh, oh, I see. Okay. We do a fun thing. I don't know if all places do this, but in California, |
| 0:57.2 | because it can be, |
| 0:57.8 | you know, |
| 1:28.5 | a hundred, here in the cold. Oh, oh, I see. Okay. We do a fun thing. I don't know if all places do this, but in California, because it can be, you know, 100, 110, whatever, we do a thing where to compensate, we make the insides of our building 33 degrees. Yes. Because, you know, it's so hot outside that you want to make it freezing cold inside. Yeah. So that makes it so you can't possibly be comfortable in any circumstance. It's great. And it feels great when you're wearing a suit and you've been sweating heavily and you walk in and just get frozen. Yeah, yeah, that's true. It would feel good for a few minutes. Everyone enjoys that. Most people just, like, work in their building forever and freeze the day. But I still, I'll take a cold building any day over a hot one. I just can't. I'm in. |
| 1:42.0 | I mean, obviously to a point, but like, the sweating while you're sitting there working, you can't do anything. No, it's true. That's the thing. There's always the battle over the office thermostat. It's like, hey, if you're cold, you can always put something on, a sweatshirt, a blanket, or anything. If you're hot, there's laws. |
| 1:42.6 | Okay? |
| 1:44.7 | You can't do anything else. |
| 1:47.6 | So it's like, sorry, you got to bias toward cold. |
| 2:01.7 | Just. anything. If you're hot, there's laws. Okay? You can't do anything else. So it's like, sorry, you got to bias toward cold. It's just the way it is. Also, my brain still works when it's cold and not when it's hot. Oh, wow. My brain should be, you know, on overdrive right now in this temperature. Jeez, yeah, we're going to get a super mat. Well, cool. Yeah. Well, uh, what are we going to be talking about today? All right. Well, we have got to talk about the Prairaland ice protest case that just went to a verdict last week, unfortunately. |
| 2:07.2 | And, you know, we talked about this back in October when DOJ brought superseding material support |
| 2:11.7 | for terror charges, alleging that these people were members of an Antifa terror cell. |
| 2:16.2 | Yeah. And I flagged it at the time time because this is the first use of this idea of charging people as members of Antifa, right? Which is a group, as we all know, does not exist. I'd flagged how dangerous this could get. And this case, really, I'm going to make the argument proves because this is the murky case they have right now. This is the one that shows the evils of Antifa, and there's nothing here. This is a really bad case. Right, but I saw it was a guilty verdict, wasn't it? That's right. In terms of what they were actually convicted of, what most of these people, most of these defendants actually were convicted of, it's pretty scary because this really could be any of us. So I'll get into |
| 2:51.5 | a little more. I think that it's not getting enough attention. And this is a real classic kind of |
| 2:55.3 | OA story because there's a lot more going on than the government's going to tell you. Oof. Well, |
| 3:00.0 | that sucks. Yeah. But on the other side of things, we've got Ed Martin, one of our favorite |
| 3:04.8 | market characters, former U.S. attorney from D.C., January 6th, attendee. |
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