Several individuals on the left were charged with conspiring to carry out a bombing in California, having shared their radical plans with an undercover FBI informant. They even mentioned something akin to a “terrorist diary” before their arrest on Friday, as detailed in court documents.
According to the FBI’s criminal complaint filed Saturday, this informant played a crucial role in exposing the alleged New Year’s Eve plot of the group known as the Turtle Island Liberation Front (TILF). During a meeting in December, which included other anonymous informants, Zachary Page expressed he was “100,000 percent” sure that the FBI was monitoring TILF activities ahead of the planned attack.
One of the defendants, Audrey Carroll, reportedly texted a Signal informant on December 10, revealing, “I had a notebook where I wrote down multiple plans that either didn’t come to fruition or were delayed. So it’s like my terrorist diary. Funny, I have to get rid of it.”
The FBI claims that Carroll provided a handwritten document titled “Operation Midnight Sun,” which detailed the bombing plot aimed at multiple businesses across Los Angeles at midnight on New Year’s Eve. This investigation resulted in a SWAT raid on Friday in the Mojave Desert, where officials allege the four defendants were testing explosives.
Court records haven’t indicated if the defendants have legal representation yet. A first court appearance occurred Monday, where they faced charges related to conspiracy and possession of unregistered explosives.
Kyle Shideler, a counterterrorism analyst, commented on the challenges of infiltrating such left-wing groups. He mentioned that these groups are quite adept at what they refer to as “security culture,” making it tough for law enforcement to keep tabs on them. “They evade technical surveillance and educate their members on spotting potential intruders,” he explained.
The FBI deemed the informant credible, highlighting their clean criminal record and prior contributions to cases since beginning work with the agency in August 2021.
Shideler noted that while information on how the Trump administration facilitated this investigation is still unclear, infiltrating left-wing groups is inherently difficult due to their long history of avoiding police surveillance. The FBI reported that the TILF defendants had multiple meetings with informants or undercover agents in late November and early December to discuss their plans.
During the trip to the desert, Carroll reportedly acknowledged, “What we’re doing will be considered terrorism,” according to the FBI. Ryan Mauro, an extremism researcher, observed that while the FBI has long conducted covert operations within left-wing organizations, there seems to be a stronger focus now on right-wing extremists.
“This kind of informant use against criminal anarchists and communist extremists is not rare,” Mauro remarked, although he noted that there may be more criminal activities tied to the far-right demographic. He added, however, that the increasing attention to far-left extremists is understandable given their growth and activities.
The FBI’s investigation of TILF was initiated following directives from President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi, focusing on domestic terrorist threats, particularly from left-wing groups. The rhetoric from TILF’s Instagram account underscores its anti-government sentiments, stating in an October post, “Death to America. Death to the colonialists. Death to capitalism. Death to imperialism. Not violence.”
