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The administration is convinced that these protests aren’t spontaneous, and because of NSPM-7, the FBI has to prioritize collecting intelligence to show that. Serafini said that a particular focus of the FBI agents was whether the violence at the protest had been premeditated; and he when he told them it all seemed spontaneous, they implied he was lying.

Per Serafini:

“They asked me if the violence (rocks, paint balloons) seemed spontaneous or premeditated. I told them it seemed spontaneous once the ICE agents escalated. They brought up that some protestors showed up with riot shields, so they questioned why they would bring shields if violence wasn’t premeditated. And they kept drilling me on the fact that I showed up alone, [that I didn’t] remember where I saw the flyer, and didn’t know anybody there. They told me that’s unusual and pretty suspicious — as if I was holding back information about whoever organized the protest. They kept insinuating that I was lying to them.”

“They showed me photos of several protestors … and tried to get information on them. They said ICE officers were badly injured and that these were the real suspects they needed info on. I told them I had no idea who they were. They seemed frustrated by that, but it’s the truth.”

According to Serafini, the two FBI agents showed him photos of himself at the protest as well as several other protesters — people he knew nothing about. The agents asked him for his cell phone, but he refused. The questioning lasted about an hour. Serafini said they left him with a chilling message: that they couldn’t guarantee this would be the last time they saw him.