Acting U.S. Attorney in California Bill Essayli joins Fox News host Laura Ingraham on The Ingraham Angle to discuss the Department of Justice’s potential use of RICO statutes against Antifa and left-wing domestic terror networks.
The Department of Justice under Attorney General Pam Bondi is finally turning the screws on Antifa and its network of domestic terrorists.
Acting U.S. Attorney for California, Bill Essayli, dropped a bombshell on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle,” revealing that federal prosecutors are actively considering Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) charges against these anarchists who have terrorized American cities for years with impunity.
“We’ve charged some conspiracies. We are looking at RICO. But really, the FBI is just getting its hands around the Antifa. Up until the President and the attorney general, Pam Bondi, has been so aggressive on this, up until they’ve made Antifa a domestic organization.
I have to tell you, Laura, the [Biden regime] weren’t taking them very seriously. They were just saying, You know what? These are just some vandalizers, some small assaults. We’ll let the states handle them. The FBI did not take them seriously until this new administration. So we are now getting up to speed on investigations and doing intelligence and applying other assets to figure out how they work and who they are.”
WATCH:
JUST IN: The Department of Justice and Acting US Attorney in California are now officially considering RICO CHARGES against Antifa and left-wing terror participants…
…and they could only start because President Trump designated them a TERROR organization.
“We are looking… pic.twitter.com/RYeWwK8nWs
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) October 24, 2025
This revelation comes as no surprise to anyone who’s watched Antifa’s reign of terror unfold since the 2020 riots, where they burned businesses, assaulted police officers, and sowed division in Democrat-run cities like Portland and Seattle.
For too long, Democrats and fake news media outlets have downplayed Antifa as a “myth” or just “an idea,” while innocent Americans suffered the consequences of their arson and assaults.
RICO has traditionally been used to go after organized crime networks such as the Mafia.
In 2019, Sen. Ted Cruz proposed deploying RICO against Antifa.
The Heritage Foundation wrote:
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, recently requested an organized crime investigation of the masked militant group Antifa, which he called “a left-wing anarchist terrorist organization that routinely relies on violence to intimidate and punish its political opponents.”
Cruz made his request for a probe of Antifa in a letter to Attorney General William Barr, Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen and FBI Director Christopher Wray. The letter details a path to prosecuting members of Antifa under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO).
Broadly targeting those they claim are far-right and racist, Antifa members have repeatedly engaged in criminal activity ranging from destroying property to attacking a reporter. The group is best known for fighting those it labels “fascists” with tactics borrowed from Adolf Hitler’s early followers, known as Brownshirts.
Antifa came to national attention in 2017 when its violent protests of President Trump’s inauguration led to hundreds of arrests.
Antifa protesters in Washington destroyed storefronts, set trash cans and a limousine on fire, and attacked police officers with rocks and bricks.
In New York City, Dallas, Chicago and Portland, Ore., club-wielding Antifa protesters threw bricks and unknown liquids at police officers.
For years, the FBI and federal apparatus have been accused of focusing overwhelmingly on so-called “right-wing militia” violence, while left-wing anarchist/Antifa terrorists received lighter treatment or none at all.
The post DOJ and Acting U.S. Attorney in California Now Officially Weighing RICO Charges Against Antifa and Far-Left Domestic Terrorists appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.