How the FBI Infiltrated Racial Justice Protests in 2020

Deconstructed

The Intercept

News

4.8 • 4.7K Ratings

🗓️ 10 February 2023

⏱️ 42 minutes

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Summary

As the racial justice movement was heating up in 2020, a new “activist” arrived on the scene in Denver, Colorado. The man, who looks like a biker, is named Michael Adam Windecker II. He was able to make his way into the Denver racial justice activists’ inner circle and eventually began helping organize protests. He also attempted to involve some of the activists in criminal activity, like a plot to assassinate the state attorney general. But Windecker was not an activist; he was a fed. This week on Deconstructed, investigative reporter and Intercept contributor Trevor Aaronson joins host Ryan Grim to discuss Windecker’s story. Aaronson and Grim discuss the FBI’s approach to the racial justice uprising in 2020, the FBI’s infiltration of Black activist groups, and how the FBI’s use of informants may create crime rather than prevent it. Aaronson is the host of the new podcast “Alphabet Boys,” which chronicles the story of Windecker’s infiltration of the movement. join.theintercept.com/donate/now

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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Ryan Graham and welcome to Deconstructed.
0:06.8	So most of you know by now that one of the primary functions of the early FBI was to
0:10.8	surveil and infiltrate any organization that Jay Edgar Hoover considered to be remotely
0:15.1	sympathetic to communism, which essentially meant anybody to the left of the John Burke
0:19.3	society.
0:20.3	That evolved in the 1960s into the infamous Coentel Pro, which infiltrated and worked to undermine
0:25.6	civil rights organizations.
0:27.5	But back in 2020, protests erupted in the wake of the murder of George Floyd.
0:57.5	The protests sometimes turned violent with the escalation sometimes driven by protesters
1:07.5	and other times driven by law enforcement.
1:10.4	But there was always this nagging question behind each provocation.
1:14.0	Was that organic or were provocateurs involved?
1:17.3	Was that guy really a fed?
1:19.4	Now thanks to new reporting by my colleague Trevor Aronson, we now have an answer in at
1:23.6	least one city.
1:27.4	In Denver during the height of the protests a man named Michael Adam Windecker the second
1:30.9	grew close to racial justice activists.
1:33.5	Windecker looked like a biker, a 40-something-year-old white guy who smoked cigars and drove a
1:37.8	silver hers.
1:39.5	He was able to make his way into the activist's inner circle and eventually began helping
1:43.2	organize protests.
1:44.8	And he attempted to involve some of the activists in criminal activity like a plot to assassinate
	...

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