Megan Basham

Yeah, John, I would say that the picture coming into focus here is less scattered and spontaneous outrage, and it's more structured activism that's operating through layered networks on the ground in Minneapolis.

So some of these are local, some are regional, and some are indeed actually tied to national left-wing movements.

So according to investigative journalists at Fox News and some other outlets, these networks that Preti was involved with rely pretty heavily on encrypted messaging platforms, especially Signal, to coordinate their movements in real time.

So essentially what they're doing is sharing locations of federal vehicles, they're sharing hotels that are housing agents, and they're sharing enforcement activity.

Now, these protesters' roles are clearly defined within the chat groups with emojis as identifiers.

So to give you some examples, a car with exhaust represents mobile patrols who hunt for ICE vehicles.

A runner symbol is for foot patrols and a phone for dispatchers running constant calls.

Now, according to the signal materials that were leaked over the weekend from these groups, protesters are taking shifts and operations are running 24-7 with dispatch calls maxing out at 50 people at a time.

And they're dividing their patrol zones into districts guiding, quote-unquote, ice chasers on positioning.

And in some of these chats, members are openly acknowledging that they're also fighting a sort of propaganda war.

And the strategies for that include filming escalations, reframing incidents as, quote, executions or murders.

And they're also using inflammatory terms like ICE Gestapo or Nazi-like.

And that's the same kind of messaging that you're hearing from Governor Tim Walz, who invoked the name of Anne Frank during a press conference on Sunday.

Yeah, that is really the key question here, and it is one that federal investigators are now asking.

So publicly, organizers are claiming that these donations come from small donors and community fundraisers, and that is partly true.

But according to Fox's investigation, it is also backed by American-born billionaire Neville Roy Singham, who is a self-proclaimed Marxist-Leninist who's now living in China.

Now, Singham has poured money into a group called the People's Forum since 2017.

That's a nonprofit that supports entities like Breakthrough News, which is a left-wing propaganda outfit that has been heavily creating content centered on Minneapolis.

They're doing things like sharing videos and publishing graphics, demanding things like abolishing ICE.

FBI Director Kash Patel said on Monday morning that his office is taking a close look at these organizations for potential charges.