Federal Trial Over Trump’s Portland Guard Deployment Highlights Chaos, Conflicting Testimony

The federal trial over President Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Portland, Oregon, began Wednesday, with both sides presenting their opening arguments and a witness from the Portland Police Bureau testifying about the riots that led to the decision.

Trump deployed the Guard on October 1 after months of unrest outside U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facilities. The case, presided over by Trump-appointed U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut, stems from a lawsuit filed by the city and state seeking to block the deployment.

During opening arguments, Portland attorney Caroline Turco argued that evidence and testimony from local law enforcement showed the city was not facing threats and was not “ravaged by war.” (RELATED: Portland Police Host Professor on Podcast to Brag About ‘Peaceful’ Protests That Led to 60 Arrests)

“Are the protests in Portland so violent that the deployment of the National Guard is justified? Turco asked the court. “The plaintiffs would submit to you, no…Portland is not ‘war ravaged.’ There is no rebellion and the laws continue to be applied every day. »

National Guard deployment finds itself in legal limbo. An order previously filed on Oct. 4 sought to block the National Guard from entering the city, although it was blocked on Oct. 20 after a majority of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that Trump “probably” acted within the proper legal bounds.

On Tuesday evening, appeals court judges voted to rehear the case, letting Immergut make the final decision on whether Trump legally invoked presidential authority to deploy the National Guard to protect Portland’s ICE facilities.

Cmdr. Franz Schoening of the Portland Police Bureau, the first witness to testify, spoke for over an hour about his background and experiences observing protests and riots. Schoening noted that Portland’s sanctuary laws have added a “layer of complexity” for local law enforcement when working with federal agents.

Asked about incidents outside ICE facilities since June, Schoening said the groups have generally been “pretty small” since Sept. 28 and said he doesn’t recall any arrests of protesters for assaults on federal agents.

“I think the trend that we’ve noticed and had to try to figure out how to address is the increasing number of people showing up to engage in debates and arguments and physical conflicts around ICE facilities, and not so much criminal behavior focused on ICE facilities or federal agents,” Schoening said.

Federal agents stand guard to keep protesters away from an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in downtown Portland, Oregon, October 6, 2025. (Photo by MATHIEU LEWIS-ROLLAND/AFP via Getty Images)

“There were a lot of harassment cases, assault cases where we had to, again, make arrests because the bulk of the behavior that we saw focused on ICE facilities was actually civil disobedience, passive driving, blocking the driveway, those types of things,” Schoening added.

Schoening further explained during prosecutors’ questioning how Oregon state laws passed after the 2020 George Floyd riots limited how local law enforcement could use munitions for crowd control.

When asked whether events after Sept. 28 stood out in terms of their use, he said federal agents deployed a significant amount of tear gas, although they noted protesters were seen breaking in. Schoening added that in his opinion, local law enforcement was “not seeing any criminal or violent behavior.”

Under cross-examination by President Trump’s Department of Justice (DOJ) lawyers, Schoening was asked about the lack of arrests made by Portland police during the June protests. Prosecutors read an excerpt from the incident commander’s summary of the events of June 12, which described a “black bloc protester with a helmet and pepper spray” hanging donuts from the ICE entry control loudspeaker as other protesters began to arrive.

The report also said Antifa manuals were being distributed and about 100 protesters wearing helmets, gas masks and pepper spray were visible. After the crowd grew to about 200 people, federal authorities fired pepper balls, which “angered the crowd” and led protesters to remove their makeshift shields and throw objects at the officers who returned fire.

“PPB DLO [Dialogue Liaison Officers] were ordered not to engage with this hostile crowd for safety reasons, correct? » asked the DOJ lawyer.

“Yes,” said Schöning. “Our dialogue means that an officer is not prepared to engage in violent disorder. »

The DOJ attorney then asked, “The PPB would generally arrest someone for throwing an object at an officer, correct?” to which Schoening replied, “Yes.”

Further emphasizing the lack of arrests, the DOJ lawyer pointed out that the crowd ultimately grew to around 400 people. The report describes a woman in black spray-painting a window, others using slingshots to throw rocks at a second-story window, and a dumpster being pushed into ICE’s driveway. The first arrest, according to the report, only occurred when a fire was spotted during law enforcement’s livestream.

In his follow-up questioning, Schoening notably stated that he did not believe that Antifa, seen at the protests, was not an organized group.

The trial is expected to last two more days.

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