The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
DOJ charges two U.S. citizens with trying to support Hamas
Suspects say they’re in far-right extremist group Boogaloo Bois.
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department on Friday charged two U.S. citizens with ties to a far-right extremist group with trying to support the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas — a case that shows that extremists have sought to turn protests against racism into opportunities to commit violence, but that also runs counter to President Donald Trump’s assertions that those extremists are predominantly on the far left.
Michael R. Solomon, 30, and Benjamin R. Teeter, 22, who were taken into custody Thursday evening in Minneapolis, say they are members of a group called the Boogaloo Bois and of a subgroup called the Boojahideen. The groups are part of a loosely connected movement that seeks to bring about a second civil war to overthrow the U.S. government.
John C. Demers, the head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, said in a statement Solomon and Teeter met with people they believed to be members of Hamas in order to “join forces and provide support, including in the form of weapons accessories,” to the terrorist organization.
“The defendants believed their anti-U.S. government views aligned with those of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization, and actively developed plans to carry out violence in Minnesota and elsewhere,” Erica H. MacDonald, the U.S. attorney in Minneapolis, said in a statement.
The FBI has long considered anti-government extremists a serious and dangerous domestic terrorist threat.
The bureau opened an investigation into members of the Boogaloo Bois in late May, when protests prompted by the police killing of George Floyd, a Black man in Minneapolis, gave way to arson, rioting and looting in some parts of the city. The FBI received information that armed men associated with Boogaloo had taken to the streets of Minneapolis in the middle of the protests and that they had discussed committing violent acts during the unrest, according to court documents.
Over the past few months, protesters outraged by the death of Floyd as well as by a string of police shootings and killings of Black people have marched in cities across the country. Though many of the protests have been peaceful, some rioting and looting have occurred, and some protesters have had violent clashes with law enforcement.
But right-wing activists who joined the fray to counter the calls for racial justice have also violently clashed with protesters. Kyle Rittenhouse, an Illinois teenager who staunchly supports
Trump, went to a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, armed with a rifle. After a melee that left two dead, Rittenhouse was charged in connection to two homicides. His lawyer has said he acted in self-defense.
Michael Forest Reinoehl, a self-professed member of the left-wing anti-fascism movement antifa, was a suspect in the fatal shooting last weekend of a member of the right-wing group Patriot Prayer during a protest in Portland, Oregon. The shooting occurred after a confrontation between a caravan of Trump supporters and racial justice demonstrators. Reinoehl was killed by law enforcement Thursday during an attempt to arrest him.