I think it behooves to keep this extensively researched story with additional info. on legality and Congressional committee questions in mind past the election. I have an inkling things might not be the same old, same old as they first appear and may not be that political either.

By Matthias Schwartz @ NYBooks.com, Oct. 8

The FBI’s Washington, D.C., headquarters sent agents from its “Fly Team,” an elite counterterrorism unit, to Portland this summer during the second weekend in July. Their task was to interview arrested protesters and carry out the “initial exploitation of phones, or other communication devices,” according to FBI emails obtained through a public records request. It is unclear whether the Fly Team operation extended either past that weekend or beyond Portland, but the emails suggest that the FBI has been using counterterrorism tools and powers to map left-wing protest networks just months before an election whose result is likely to be delayed, if not challenged.

“In my day, this would have been unheard of—sending the Fly Team out not against al-Qaeda terrorists but protesters in American streets,” said a former high-ranking FBI official who served through the first post-9/11 decade,“ I don’t mean to imply that it’s wrong. It’s just, like, wow.” [....]

Not all former—and perhaps current—FBI agents agree with the director’s assessment in congressional testimony that Antifa is “a movement or an ideology,” and “not a group or organization.” Holcomb argued that, in some respects, Antifa does resemble a terrorist organization. “They’re extremely well-organized,” he said. “I would suspect that government agencies, whether it’s the FBI or others, are looking at them and trying to discern if there’s any international influence or support. I suspect that’s why they’re out there.”[....]