Leak: Feds Think Protests Hide Terrorism

“No Kings” protest eyed amid NSPM-7 domestic terror panic

FBI Director Kash Patel and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are warning police across the country that protests against ICE or Trump administration policies are cover for terrorism to occur, according to a restricted circulation intelligence Bulletin leaked to me.

The Bulletin is the latest sign that Trump’s NSPM-7 national security directive ordering federal agencies to root out domestic terrorism will ramp up surveillance and monitoring of protests and free speech.

Screenshot of leaked bulletin

Republican Party leaders are joining the panic over so-called domestic terrorism, with two top officials this week likening the upcoming “No Kings” anti-Trump protests to terrorism.

“They have a ‘Hate America’ rally that’s scheduled for October 18 on the National Mall,” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson said last Friday. “It’s the pro-Hamas wing and Antifa people,” he said. Majority Whip Rep. Tom Emmer, House Republicans’ third-highest ranking leader, also called that the upcoming No Kings protest a “‘Hate America’ rally,” attributing it to the “terrorist wing” of the Democratic Party.

These comments appear to be the first where congressional leaders have adopted the Trump administration framing of protesters as linked to terrorism. (Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem recently said that Antifa, which has been designated a “domestic terrorist organization” is just as dangerous as ISIS.)

The No Kings protest originated as a response to Trump’s military parade this summer, which also coincided with the president’s birthday. Drawing hundreds of thousands of protesters across the country, the demonstrations were about as mainstream as you could imagine, enjoying the support of prominent liberal groups like Indivisible, MoveOn and Public Citizen.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise echoed his colleagues’ rhetoric, deeming the upcoming No Kings event a “‘Hate America’ rally.”

Just weeks ago this kind of talk was largely confined to the more flamboyant administration figures like White House Senior Director for Counterterrorism, Sebastian Gorka, who months ago suggested that the political opposition might be providing “material support” for terrorism, as I reported at the time.

The leaked intelligence Bulletin, dated October 1, is titled “Domestic Violent Extremists Pose Increased Threat of Violence to ICE Facilities and Personnel.” It is intended for consumption by law enforcement across the country. Employing the FBI’s euphemism for domestic terrorists, “Domestic Violent Extremists” (DVEs), the Bulletin suggests that those who are or might attack ICE and other federal facilities are lurking behind anti-ICE demonstrations.

Attacks in the past, the Bulletin says, “took advantage of First Amendment-protected activity,” conveying the narrative that protests themselves demand monitoring and are part of some “extremist” conspiracy.

“Two attacks at ICE facilities in Texas — in July and September 2025, which resulted in four casualties — underscore the elevated threat environment for immigration enforcement operations in the United States,” the intelligence Bulletin says. “Since June 2025, DVEs in at least three states have conducted two targeted, pre-planned violent attacks against ICE personnel and facilities and additional unplanned, reactive violent attacks that took advantage of First Amendment-protected activity.”

None of the “four casualties” the Bulletin references, though, were actually ICE personnel. In the case of the alleged Dallas ICE shooter Joshua Jahn, the 29-year-old opened fire on an ICE facility, killing two ICE detainees and wounding a third before taking his own life.

“FBI investigation into the suspected shooter revealed that he expressed anti-ICE sentiments,” the Bulletin says.

While it’s true that bullets recovered from the scene were inscribed with the phrase “anti-ICE” — photos of which FBI Director Kash Patel was quick to post to social media, leading major media to adopt the narrative that this was anti-ICE terrorism — Jahn’s former friends told me he was a largely apolitical troll who they thought just wanted to spread chaos. (His brother has also said Jahn hadn’t had strong feelings about ICE nor politics in general and that he thought the shooting was carried out “indiscriminately.”)

The Bulletin’s second example describes the July attack on the ICE Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas. The Justice Department says that a group of assailants dressed in black tactical clothing first used fireworks and graffiti to lure ICE and law enforcement personnel out before opening fire, shooting one officer in the neck. Flyers and spray paint found on the scene saying things like “FIGHT ICE TERROR” and “RESIST FASCISM” do suggest that the attack was politically motivated. But nowhere in the later indictment is there any sign that a protest was involved.

The Bulletin closes with a vague reference to DVEs having “leveraged large, lawful protests” in “multiple cities” in California and Oregon since June, implying some relation between the demonstrations and domestic terrorism.

“These individuals have caused damage to ICE facilities in Portland and Eugene, Oregon, and engaged in violent confrontations with law enforcement,” the Bulletin says.

There have no doubt been violent confrontations and instances of vandalism — but terrorism? There hasn’t been a single ICE employee killed this year. And the officer shot in the neck seems to be the only major injury resulting from political opposition to ICE.

The lack of evidence doesn’t seem to matter with the moral panic over domestic terrorism in full swing after Charlie Kirk’s murder, a 9/11-type event for the administration.

In late September, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a directive citing Trump’s NSPM-7 throughout, titled “Ending Political Violence Against ICE.” Two days later, the Bulletin I obtained was produced.

— Edited by William M. Arkin