A federal grand jury in San Antonio has indicted 22-year-old Grace Carol Brown of New Braunfels, Texas, for allegedly attempting to burn down the Comal County Republican Party headquarters on January 14.
The indictment charges Brown with actual and attempted malicious damage by fire to property involved in interstate or foreign commerce — a federal offense carrying five to twenty years in prison. She also faces state charges of burglary and arson.
U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas Justin R. Simmons announced the charges. According to court documents, Brown smashed a building window, threw a backpack filled with fuel inside, and attempted to climb through the broken glass. She then lit a rolled magazine on fire and threw it through the opening before fleeing the scene.
Investigators found the backpack at the scene containing ethanol, gasoline containers, a lighter, and matches. Inside the building, they recovered a partially charred note reading: “Report this: I burned down the Nazi Party of NB’s office. F%# DJT F% # ICE, Liberty or die.”
The note also featured the Drei Pfeile — or “three arrows” — symbol, a socialist emblem originating in 1930s Germany that has been adopted by modern Antifa-aligned groups. Investigators also uncovered writings attributed to Brown expressing repeated “disdain for the goals and activities” of the Comal County GOP and naming federal agencies and Executive Branch officials as “Enemies of the U.S. Constitution.”
Brown was arrested within days of the attack following a joint investigation by New Braunfels Police, the local Fire Marshal’s Office, and the FBI.
The attack on a small-county GOP office by a politically motivated arsonist carrying incendiary materials and Antifa-linked symbols is precisely the kind of left-wing political violence that receives a fraction of the media coverage it would generate if the targets and ideologies were reversed.