The FBI is assisting local police in their investigation, according to FBI Public Affairs Specialist Sandra Yi Barker. Barker said the Coeur d’Alene police are the main law enforcement agency investigating the situation. The detainees all wore similar Patriot Front-related clothing, including identical badges, and were in possession of at least one smoke, police said. According to the Anti-Defamation League, the Patriot Front is a white supremacist group whose members claim that their ancestors conquered America and left it to them. The team split from another white supremacist team, Vanguard America, in late August 2017, according to the ADL. White said the group was equipped with “shields, shin guards and other riot equipment with them”, along with documents he described as “similar to a business plan that a police or military team would draw up for an event”. The 31 were arrested in connection with the plot, which is a misdemeanor, White said, adding that the suspects came from at least 11 states. Authorities released photos Sunday of the detainees, who have since been released on bail and were released from custody, according to the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office. They will return to court at a later date. Among those arrested was Patriotic Front leader Thomas Ryan Rousseau, according to the Sergeant. Shane Moline’s sheriff’s office. Rousseau has since been released from Kootenai County Jail. Rousseau, according to the ADL, led several dozen members of Vanguard America Texas during the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August 2017. CNN appealed to Rousseau’s legal representation, but received no immediate response. The operation in Coeur d’Alene began when an concerned citizen informed police that “about 20 people jumped into a U-Haul. They had shields and looked like a small army,” White said. There was no violence or significant disturbance before the arrests were made, White said, adding, “Today it turned out to be relatively smooth overall.”
