(Headline USA) The Justice Department said it was investigating the Portland Police Bureau’s arrest of independent journalist Nick Sortor following his assault by Antifa Thursday night.
After prominent podcaster Tim Pool posted a message for the DOJ to launch a legal challenge to the far-left Oregon city’s refusal to comply with several federal laws, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon replied, “On it.”
On it https://t.co/hK5HFOMK5x
— AAGHarmeetDhillon (@AAGDhillon) October 3, 2025
A newly emancipated Sortor said that Attorney General Pam Bondi had personally called him to confirm the DOJ probe.
“FAFO, @PortlandPolice,” he wrote on X, using the well known acronym that stands for “F**k around, find out.”
🚨 BREAKING: Attorney General Pam Bondi has ORDERED a full investigation, led by Asst. AG Harmeet Dhillon, of the Portland Police Bureau, following my wrongful arrest last night, Bondi confirmed to me.
FAFO, @PortlandPolice.@AGPamBondi personally called me to deliver this… pic.twitter.com/DBdp9vl5Ka
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) October 3, 2025
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also confirmed that President Donald Trump had directed his staff to consider cutting federal aid to the so-called sanctuary city.
“We will NOT fund states that allow anarchy!” Leavitt said in a press conference Friday, which was retweeted by the newly emancipated Sortor.
🚨 BREAKING: In response to my wrongful arrest in Portland, President Trump has ORDERED his staff to review federal aid to be CUT in the city, per Karoline Leavitt
“We will NOT fund states that allow anarchy!”
This arrest is going to cost Portland leftists DEARLY! pic.twitter.com/ESpB7BwfDV
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) October 3, 2025
Portland, a haven for domestic terrorism linked to Antifa and other groups supporting anarchy or anti-democratic accelerationism, has seen weeks of sometimes violent riots, ostensibly against immigration enforcement operations.
During an interview Friday with Fox News personality Johnny Joey Jones, Sortor said he was assaulted for filming tearful members of Antifa on Thursday night after they had been sprayed by mace.
Despite having been the victim of the assault for exercising his lawful right to film in a public space, Portland Police took him to jail.
Sortor said the city “feels like a third-world communist country” due to the aggressive censorship and selective enforcement of the laws.
“They want to intimidate us into shutting up and going away and not coming here, because it’s pretty obvious… this is a 90/10 issue,” he said, suggesting that only a small but disproportionately vocal portion of the population sided with Antifa.
He also suggested that the police department was colluding with the terrorist organization to allow the left-wing violence to continue indefinitely.
“The Portland police have been running cover for them for a few years now,” Sortor said. “It’s like they’re in the pocket of the Antifa people.”
Some are saying this is the leader of ANTIFA in Portland. I tend to agree @ChiefBobDay pic.twitter.com/LiwXGKihki
— Hunter Eagleman™ (@Hunter_Eagleman) October 3, 2025
In a separate incident that was posted on social media Thursday night, Sortor was mocked by rioters for rescuing a burning American flag.
“I was willing to run into that and grab that flag, put that fire out,” he told Jones during the Fox News interview.
“I actually have that flag now,” he added. “It’s in the back of my car. … I’m gonna bring it home with me, and I’ll cherish it the way it should be cherished.”
Jones, a wounded war veteran who lost both legs while serving in Afghanistan, said he wasn’t sure about the “proper protocol” for displaying a flag rescued from a domestic war zone.
“Maybe you put it in a frame … and remind people the price of standing up for freedom,” he suggested.
In August, Trump issued an executive order directing the DOJ to “prosecute those who incite violence or otherwise violate our laws while desecrating this symbol of our country.”
However, Democrats have threatened to challenge the order, decrying desecration of the American flag as protected speech, even while aggressively prosecuting those who disrespect the LGBT rainbow flag.
