Jury begins deliberations in San Diego antifa conspiracy case

SAN DIEGO (CN) — Defense attorneys in the criminal trial against two left-wing protesters accused of being part of a “antifa” conspiracy to riot and attack right-wing protesters in San Diego said in their closing arguments on Tuesday that their clients are not only completely innocent, but also champions of the First Amendment and victims of a biased prosecution.   

“Jeremy showed up as a medic to give first aid, they want you to convict him anyways,” said Curtis Briggs, the defense attorney for Jeremy White, at San Diego Superior Court’s downtown courthouse Tuesday.

After supporters of then-President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol building to try to keep him in power on Jan. 6, 2021, backers of the outgoing president organized a “patriots march” rally in the coastal Pacific Beach neighborhood on Jan. 9. Local leftist groups organized a counter-protest. 

The competing right- and left-wing protests devolved into multiple rolling street brawls, often involving pepper spray or orange colored bear mace throughout the day. 

Prosecutors claim that White and Brian Lightfoot are self-described anti-fascists and members of “antifa” who traveled to Pacific Beach from Los Angeles, dressed in black protective gear, and armed with mace, to be a part of a conspiracy to stop Trump supporters and other right-wing groups from rallying, and to attack them. 

That conspiracy spread over social media posts and messages between the codefendants in the case before Jan. 9, and in person the day of, when the defendants showed up in San Diego dressed in black clothing to signify they were either a part of “antifa” or sympathetic to it, prosecutors claim. 

Prosecutors said Lightfoot triggered his express agreement into the conspiracy via his social media activity shown in court during the trial that discussed how he wanted to fight in San Diego — which he testified meant fighting neo-Nazis and other violent groups wishing to do harm to others. White, prosecutors argued, triggered his inferred agreement in the conspiracy by wearing all black to the protest and searching for information on Faraday bags, which block phone electronic signals from being sent and received, and by using Signal, an encrypted text messaging service. 

Lightfoot and White originally had nine other codefendants, but each pleaded guilty to different charges; some received time in prison, some are still awaiting sentencing. 

Briggs and Lightfoot’s attorney, John Hamasaki, argued their clients were exercising their First Amendment rights to protest, and bravely stood up against right-wing extremist groups like the Proud Boys.  

“He put his principles, his First Amendment beliefs, to the test and drove two hours to show up. He tried to help,” Briggs said about White, who said in his testimony last week that he attended the protest as a medic to help protect people from dangerous right-wing extremist groups with a predilection for violence.  

Lightfoot’s comment about fighting, Hamasaki added, were about standing against fascism. 

Prosecutors claim that White acted as an enforcer doling out violence to right-wingers, whether they be extremists or not, or signaling people to do violence for him. Lightfoot, prosecutors claim, acted as a kind of foot soldier, attacking and pepper spraying right-wingers. 

During their closing arguments, both Hamasaki and Briggs questioned the impartiality of law enforcement and prosecutors, and the extent of the evidence jurors were shown, or allegedly not shown.

“I think this has been a political case against antifa,” Hamasaki said, adding that prosecutors hid “who the other side is.”

That other side, Hamasaki said, were right-wing extremists who were not only at the protest, intending to harm left-wing protesters, some of whom were known to be violent by antifascists activists, but also called to the court by prosecutors as victims of both Lightfoot and White.   

Violence done by right-wingers, Hamasaki added, was “glossed over” by prosecutors who instead brought the weight of San Diego County’s law enforcement infrastructure down on only left-wing protesters. 

White, Briggs added, had a history of being involved in an array of progressive and left-wing activist movements, including police and prosecutorial reform, which marked him as a target.

“Are these police officers, and is the prosecution team, able to fairly prosecute their ideological opponent, and that’s Jeremey White?” Briggs asked. 

An audio clip of law enforcement radio chatter that mentions the Proud Boys at the protest on Jan. 9, is important context to understand White and Lightfoot’s state of mind, especially because of the urgency in the officers' voices, Briggs said. 

“You should ask why you didn’t hear this from the prosecution,” Briggs said, adding that other videos shown as evidence from undercover law enforcement seemed to end prematurely.

One of the linchpins in the prosecutor's case against White revolves around a video, which they claim shows White putting two fingers against his respirator at his eyes, then pointing to a left-wing protester to direct them to throw a man named Ryan Luke off his bike. Prosecutors claim Lightfoot is one of the protesters who attacked the man. Luke then brandishes a knife at left-wing protesters surrounding him. At some point White follows him, according to the defense, or chases him, according to prosecutors, around the corner and sprays bear mace.

Pictures of Luke taken after he was supposedly maced don’t show the hallmark of a such an attack: an orange stain, Briggs said. Hamasaki added that the video of the event does not show Lightfoot involved in the attack. 

“Police never intervened to help anybody, and that was known to Jeremy,” Briggs said. Instead, White intervened to protect people from a man who already disliked left-wingers wielding a knife with intent to hurt someone, he added.

“Where is the video of something violent happening by any other crowd than antifa?” Deputy District Attorney Makenzie Harvey asked on rebuttal.

Harvey claimed that White and Lightfoot were followed closely by two photographers throughout the day — one who drove them to the protest, and the other a published freelance writer and videographer whose footage of the day was used as evidence in the case. None of it showed evidence of violence perpetrated by right-wingers, the prosecutor said.

The claim that prosecutors have a bias, or withheld or messed with videos or photographic evidence, is offensive, she added.

The defendants were part of a mob of left-wingers that wanted to perpetrate violence and revenge, she said.

But prosecutors failed to establish that the so-called "mob" was a unified entity, Hamasaki said. Instead, the defendants and other left-wingers that day were acting independently of any group mission, he added.

The jury began its deliberations after closing arguments ended.

Along with a conspiracy to riot charge, White is facing an assault charge in the case. Lightfoot is also facing multiple assault charges.

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