The Trump administration is pursuing federal charges against two protesters accused of damaging a construction company's property during a May 2022 demonstration outside Atlanta, reviving a case that state courts have twice rejected as violating constitutional protections.
Katie Marie Kloth and Tyler John Norman face federal indictment over their alleged role in the protest at Brassfield & Gorrie, the lead contractor for Cop City, a $109 million police training facility. The charges come weeks after a Cobb County judge dismissed identical state charges, finding the years-long delay between the alleged incidents and prosecution violated due process rights.
The federal move signals an escalating effort by the Trump administration to weaponize the "antifa" label against protesters. The Justice Department explicitly tied the indictment to a September 2024 National Security Presidential Memorandum targeting "violent and terroristic activities under the umbrella of self-described anti-fascism." That same month, Trump issued an executive order designating "antifa" as a "domestic terrorist organization."
The May 2022 gathering drew roughly 50 people to the Cobb County site with banners and chants. Prosecutors allege some attendees set off fireworks and caused property damage. The federal indictment uses language that transforms these acts, referring to "explosives" rather than fireworks and invoking charges of "riot and civil disorder."
Xavier de Janon, an attorney for defendant Dr. Hannah Kass in earlier state proceedings, sees a deliberate pattern. "It's the federal government creating a boogeyman and then finding incidents to match," he said. "The Cobb County protest matches the narrative of what they're looking for. It's similar to what they did with Prairieland,they're crafting a certain narrative on protests and trying to indict based on the narrative."
The reference is to a Texas case where a jury convicted ICE protesters of material support for terrorism in March 2024, resulting in decades-long sentences. De Janon believes that verdict emboldened federal prosecutors to pursue this case. "Perhaps because of the Prairieland verdict, [the federal government] felt emboldened to try again," he said.
Will Potter, a filmmaker and author who studies government responses to dissent, highlighted how language itself becomes a prosecutorial tool. "Fireworks become explosives. Communities become 'antifa cells'. The power of language is going to become central to everything the government is doing moving forward," he said.
The semantic shift reflects a broader historical pattern. Arun Kundnani, who has written extensively on political violence and radicalism, noted that federal authorities have leveraged terrorist labels against protest movements for decades, from the Black Panthers in the 1970s to Muslim Americans after 9/11. "If you want to criminalize protesters, you link them to a terrorist group," Kundnani said. "Antifa exists as a concept,but not as a terrorist organization. They know if you characterize antifa as a terrorist organization, it enables all kinds of criminal prosecution."
During the Cobb County hearing where the state charges were dismissed, a telling exchange illustrated the absurdity of the government's framing. When prosecutor John Fowler described the protesters' black clothing and masks as evidence of criminal intent, Judge Robert E. Flournoy interjected: "Oh, that sounds like ICE."
The relentless prosecution comes despite the Cop City opposition spanning diverse coalitions. Local and national groups organized around concerns including police militarization, forest clearing, and climate impact. Atlanta police justified the facility as necessary for "world-class" training and officer recruitment.
For the three defendants facing charges across jurisdictions, the ordeal has stretched nearly five years without conviction. State prosecutors in Fulton County dismissed their case in December, followed by the Cobb County dismissal this month. Now the federal government pursues the same allegations with a different legal framework.
De Janon noted that federal investigators have known about the May 2022 incidents since they occurred, yet waited years before filing charges. "If the federal government knew about these incidents since they happened and also did not prosecute until they figured out a strategy, then it's the same due process violations and perhaps they're even clearer because they waited and waited and waited until the iron was hot to strike," he said, referring to the timing aligned with the Trump memorandum and recent convictions.
The stakes have shifted with the Prairieland sentences. Potter cautioned that the assumption courts will reject weak cases no longer holds. "Even if they don't hold up, the government might modify the case and keep on going," he said.
Author James Rodriguez: "The federal government is using a label that doesn't legally exist,'antifa' as a terrorist organization,to prosecute political opponents, and the judicial system so far has only slowed, not stopped, the machinery."
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