Dallas, Texas, resident Benjamin Song has agreed to testify in court about a terrorist attack by an “Antifa cell” prosecutors say he led, court records show.
Song and eight others face a federal trial beginning Tuesday over a July 4, 2025, protest at an Alvarado immigration facility where Song allegedly began shooting at law enforcement. The 32-year-old activist and former Marine Corps reservist, who was previously on Texas’ “Most Wanted Fugitive” list, “will testify about the events of July 4, 2025 and the events leading up to that day,” his attorney said in a Thursday court filing.
The trial marks the first U.S. terrorism case explicitly focused on Antifa, a violent leftist movement that President Donald Trump designated a terrorist organization in September. The Department of Justice (DOJ) charged Song with riot, providing material support to terrorists, conspiracy to use and carry an explosive, using and carrying an explosive, attempted murder of law enforcement, discharging a firearm for a crime of violence, a December grand jury indictment shows. Song and several others face up to life in prison if convicted on all charges.
Song’s group arrived at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) building at night in black clothing and began to throw fireworks and vandalize property, prosecutors say. When a local police officer approached protesters to speak with them, someone yelled “get to the rifles” and the mob fired 20 to 30 shots, according to charging documents.
Song, later identified as the first person to open fire, hid overnight in a nearby forest after the incident, which triggered an eleven-day manhunt resulting in a SWAT team capturing him at a supporter’s Dallas apartment. She and three other co-defendants pleaded guilty to federal crimes in helping Song hide, accepting the first Antifa-related terrorism convictions in U.S. history, documents show.
Defense attorneys and those personally connected to the defendants have disputed claims that Song’s group was planning violence. The defense also chose several expert witnesses who study alleged right-wing radicalism, endorse “anti-fascist” activism or question whether Antifa is a threat at all, the Daily Caller News Foundation previously reported.
“Most of the Antifa Cell looked to Song as a leader,” a DOJ indictment says. Song and other co-defendants were formerly members of the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club, a militia-like group that protected LGBTQ events or protested conservative speakers by arriving in black clothing with rifles, according to multiple reports. Song also recruited fellow leftists at combat trainings he taught and gun ranges, the DOJ alleges.
“The oppressors in our government have the audacity to make up meaningless laws to control our autonomy as if they don’t work for us … Without us, this state is nothing,” the Elm Fork John Brown Gun Club said in a 2022 blog post calling for “insurrection.”
“We outnumber them. We are the only ones giving them power,” the group declared. “We can take just as quickly as we can give. And we will take just as quickly as we gave. We are the insurrectionist generation.”
Song allegedly purchased and fired multiple rifles used in the July terrorist attack, abandoning one of the weapons in the woods, investigators found. Before the protest, he said guns help them intimidate law enforcement in a conversation with co-defendant Cameron Arnold, prosecutors say.
“Arnold asked Song if they would be bringing guns to the July 4 action,” a DOJ indictment says. “Song replied that they would because he would not be going to jail.”
Song also faces state-level charges of engaging in organized criminal activity, aggravated assault on a public servant and aiding in the commission of terrorism, records show.
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