Two Americans are dead after federal agents opened fire during ICE operations in Minneapolis.
But White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt just revealed something that changes everything.
The FBI and DOJ are tracking what she called "organized crime rings of leftist agitators" who've been attacking law enforcement in a "very sophisticated manner."
FBI Investigates Signal Group Chats Coordinating Minneapolis ICE Protests
FBI Director Kash Patel opened an investigation the moment conservative journalist Cam Higby posted evidence of encrypted Signal group chats coordinating anti-ICE activity.
Higby infiltrated multiple groups and found structured operations – handbooks, training manuals, dispatchers, and organized assignments to track federal vehicles by license plate.
Each neighborhood had its own Signal channel.
The coordination looked nothing like spontaneous protest and everything like military logistics.
Patel launched the probe immediately because the chats showed coordination that could cross into federal violations – illegal entrapment of agents, doxxing, or threats against their families.
Some reports claim Minnesota Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan participated under the alias "Flan Southside," though her office denies this and federal authorities haven't confirmed any elected official involvement.
White House Reveals Protest Funding Investigation Into Leftist Organizations
Leavitt told Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures that these aren't random citizens exercising First Amendment rights.
The attacks follow patterns – organized, funded, and executed by professional agitators.
"Many of whom are paid," Leavitt said.
The FBI and DOJ are now tracking the money to find who's funding the violence against federal officers.
Trump called the protests "fake" and organized by "professional insurrectionists" during his Davos remarks, pointing to evidence that agitators travel from protest to protest using identical tactics.
The administration found evidence of coordination reaching beyond Minnesota to other states, suggesting a national network.
This mirrors the June 2025 Los Angeles ICE protests, when Congressional investigators looked into the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights over allegations the group provided logistical support and financial resources to rioters.
CHIRLA received $34 million in government grants including $750,000 from Biden's administration, and had previously sponsored campaigns to abolish ICE entirely.
IRS records show the money flowing from progressive foundations into these advocacy organizations, which then provided real-time intelligence about ICE locations during the LA riots.
Operation Metro Surge: Coordinated Attacks Follow Same Pattern Nationwide
Chicago protesters had "how to" guides released in December 2025 explaining tactics to interfere with immigration enforcement.
Portland saw organized resistance, with the city claiming ICE violated land use agreements after enforcement operations.
Los Angeles protests in June 2025 featured what witnesses described as professional agitators who rushed police lines and threw chunks of concrete – while someone ran through the crowd recruiting more attackers.
Conservative journalist Benny Johnson documented the pattern: organized Signal chats, assigned tasks, dispatchers coordinating movements, and what he called "paid crisis actors" traveling between protest sites.
The Party for Socialism and Liberation organized many demonstrations alongside Democratic Socialists of America chapters, with Revolutionary Communists of America members participating.
Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons announced in August 2025 that the agency would use its Homeland Security Investigations division – normally reserved for tracking drug trafficking and transnational crime – to investigate the protesters themselves.
"We are going to track the money," Lyons said.
"We are going to track these ringleaders."
Democrats compared ICE to the Nazi Gestapo and Trump's "police force," rhetoric Leavitt called "egregious language that has led to the increase in violence, threats and attacks against ICE agents."
The demonization campaign worked exactly as designed.
Renée Nicole Good, 37, was killed January 7 when an ICE agent fired three shots as her vehicle passed him during an operation where protesters had surrounded federal vehicles.
Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse, was shot and killed January 24 by Border Patrol agents outside a donut shop after protesters – who received advance notice through encrypted messages – had already gathered to interfere with the arrest.
The messages show "rapid responders" tracked agents to Glam Doll Donuts before the shooting.
Vice President JD Vance said the chaos is "engineered," and the evidence supports exactly that conclusion.
Federal Agents Face Organized Violence After Renee Good And Alex Pretti Deaths
Leavitt defended ICE and Border Patrol as "true patriots" who deserve respect, not demonization.
These officers enforce immigration laws passed by Congress – they don't write policy, they execute it.
Trump made a commitment to nearly 80 million voters to deport criminal illegal aliens, and these agents are fulfilling that mandate while facing organized violence.
The president will never waver on that promise despite Democrat senators blocking White House meetings to discuss enforcement concerns.
Murder rates are at the lowest in recorded history since Trump took office – not coincidentally, but because removing violent criminals from American streets works.
Under Biden, murders were up, violent crime was up, and illegal aliens from around the world invaded the country.
All of that ended when Trump returned to the White House.
Democrats who were smart would trust what works instead of organizing resistance campaigns against federal law enforcement doing exactly what voters demanded.
The FBI investigation will reveal who's funding these operations, who's coordinating the attacks, and whether the organized crime rings Leavitt mentioned actually exist.
If the evidence shows what conservative journalists already documented – handbooks, training, funding, and command structures – then arrests will follow.
Patel made that promise clear: if the coordination violates federal statutes or puts agents in danger, "we are going to arrest people."
The question isn't whether organized leftist agitators exist.
The encrypted chats prove they do.
The question is who's paying them and whether elected officials like Flanagan participated in operations that got two Americans killed.
Sources:
- Karoline Leavitt, Interview on Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo, Fox News, February 1, 2026.
- Ashley Carnahan, "FBI investigating Minnesota anti-ICE Signal group chats, Patel says," Fox News, January 27, 2026.
- Dan De Luce and Ben Goggin, "FBI is investigating Minnesota Signal groups tracking ICE, Patel says," NBC News, January 26, 2026.
- Anna Giaritelli and Jennie Taer, "Anti-ICE riot funding investigated after 'numerous high budget requests' for paid agitators were reported," Fox News, June 12, 2025.
