BREAKING: Federal judges in Texas just sentenced eight alleged antifa activists to a combined 450 years in prison in a case involving a protest outside the Prairieland ICE detention center. Five of those sentenced received prison terms of 50 years. One defendant who wasn’t even present at the protest received a 30-year sentence for merely moving a box of antifascist zines. The longest sentence — a 100-year term — went to an activist accused of firing a gun at a police officer. If this sounds like a grotesque miscarriage of justice, that’s because it is. The Intercept is using open records laws to uncover any new evidence that has not yet come to light. These findings could be critical for future appeals. However, local authorities are dragging their feet, throwing up one procedural hurdle after another to avoid handing over the documents that the public should be entitled to see. We refuse to back down, even if we have to sue to force local officials to comply with the law. But this could be a costly legal fight, and right now we’re 20 percent behind where we expected to be at this point in our midyear fundraising drive. If you’ve saved your payment information with ActBlue Express, your donation will go through immediately: During the trial of the Prairieland anti-ICE protesters, the government argued that dressing in so-called “black bloc” clothing, carrying first aid kits, wearing body armor, and using the messaging app Signal were indicators the defendants were engaged in antifa terrorism. The Prairieland case is the government’s first set of convictions under President Donald Trump’s executive order designating antifa as a domestic terrorist organization, and already we’re seeing similar prosecutions in other states. Our legal team is demanding that local authorities comply with our open records request in a timely fashion — and if these documents contain anything that may cast even a sliver of doubt on the government’s case, then every delay is potentially significant. There’s no bigger reporting priority for The Intercept right now than exposing the Trump administration’s assault on free speech, and as a nonprofit news outlet, we rely on your donations to help power everything we do. However, donations to The Intercept have slowed down at the worst possible time, and we’re counting on your support to help close this urgent fundraising shortfall. Please stand with The Intercept and make a donation today. 
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