Federal agents, led by Jan. 6 participant, surveilled Minnesota unions in hunt for antifa conspiracy case

Susan Du, Star Tribune on Aug 13, 2026

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MINNEAPOLIS — Homeland Security investigators conducted a wide-ranging surveillance campaign against Minnesota labor unions, trying to find evidence that they were part of an antifa conspiracy to finance domestic terrorism, according to federal records provided to the Minnesota 15, a group of protesters federally charged with impeding immigration enforcement officers during Operation Metro Surge.

Defense lawyers for the group have received some, but not all, government evidence related to the case. The documents confirmed that the government prosecutor who convened the grand jury to obtain the indictments was Deputy Attorney General Brian Lynch, a high-ranking Justice Department official who attended the Jan. 6, 2021, protests at the U.S. Capitol. Lynch was appointed this year to be co-director of the Joint Task Force Vanguard, a special unit dedicated to prosecuting left-wing political violence.

Lynch was reportedly photographed participating in the Capitol protest, standing inside a restricted zone, while rioters stormed the building. The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment from the Minnesota Star Tribune about Lynch’s involvement at the protest , but an official told Talking Points Memo last month that while Lynch was present at Jan. 6, he “never entered the Capitol, left the grounds after a brief period, and did not commit and was never accused of any violation of law.”

As part of the grand jury presentation in the case of the Minnesota protesters, the Justice Department displayed a diagram arguing that several major labor unions were connected in “the Conspiracy” at the core of the case. The unions, which traditionally align with Democratic political candidates, include the AFL-CIO, Minneapolis Federation of Educators, Minnesota Association of Professional Employees and the Service Employees International Union.

Homeland Security investigators secretly obtained financial records of the labor unions and nonprofit organizations listed in the diagram, and also sought records regarding the Communications Workers of America, which represents most of the nation’s unionized journalists, including the Star Tribune.

Kevin Riach, the lawyer for lead defendant Issac Sant, revealed the discovery materials in a court motion Thursday in which he demanded additional disclosures and indicated he intended to file a motion to dismiss for “selective prosecution.”

“The government’s initial disclosures chronicle (Homeland Security Investigations’) abuses and confirm the political animus driving this case,” Riach wrote, saying federal agents were “fueled by visions of this vast and irrational conspiracy.”

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