Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on Tuesday said his office was opening an investigation into a Tennessee-based company that has been accused of recruiting armed guards as poll watchers.
Ellison said he was looking into Tennessee-based Atlas Aegis, which allegedly sent advertisements for armed security personnel on Election Day and “post election support missions,” according to a lawsuit filed by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Minnesota and League of Women Voters of Minnesota.
According to the lawsuit, Atlas Aegis posted an advertisement on Facebook seeking former U.S. Special Operations personnel to protect businesses, polls and residences from “looting and destruction.” The post has since been deleted.
The lawsuit cites an interview Atlas Aegis Chairman Anthony Caudle gave to The Washington Post confirming the authenticity of the Facebook post.
Caudle tells The Post the armed security personnel would not be seen unless there was a problem and that some of the personnel would be there to protect against Antifa.
“They’re there for protection, that’s it,” he said. “They’re there to make sure that the Antifas don’t try to destroy the election sites.”
Experts say that Antifa is more of an ideology than an organizatio