Leaked Attorney General Memo Orders Investigation of “Antifa-aligned entities”

In a December 4 memorandum, Attorney General Pam Bondi has instructed the FBI, federal prosecutors, and police agencies to compile lists of so-called “domestic terrorist” organizations, in particular around the “ideological indicia” of “Antifa-aligned entities”, meaning the lists are to be based on ideology rather than purported illegal activity.

This memo, leaked to monopoly media just days after its 12/4 internal release, follows the recent presidential memorandum titled “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence” and the correlative executive order titled “Designating Antifa as a Domestic Terrorist Organization.” Both of these earlier documents vest the executive branch—specifically the security organs—with wide powers to investigate, disrupt, and detain any individuals or organizations who politically oppose the administration of ultra-reactionary Donald Trump, with express targeting of those with revolutionary or anti-imperialist views. The Bondi memorandum now follows up on the above with explicit instructions to conduct surveillance and mapping of revolutionary organizations and the masses resisting the attacks on the people’s democratic rights as top priority.

The Bondi memorandum stipulates that those with “opposition to law and immigration enforcement; extreme views in favor of mass migration and open borders; adherence to radical gender ideology,” “anti-Americanism,” “anti-capitalism,” “anti-Christianity,” or “hostility towards traditional views on family, religion, and morality” are subject to collection on these lists of so-called “domestic terrorists.” The memorandum further instructs the FBI and police agencies to comb through backlogs of intelligence on suspected “domestic terrorists” and to submit all such materials to the Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs) for further investigation.

The U.S. Treasury Department has also been instructed to audit the tax records of non-profit organizations that are designated as “domestic terrorist” organizations in order to build a case against them to eventually bring formal criminal charges. Furthermore, in an effort to draw in reactionary sections of the masses to assist in the state’s dirty work, the memorandum outlines a process whereby informants can be financially rewarded if they provide “tips” to police and other state agencies about suspected “domestic terrorists.”

The 12/ 4 memorandum represents another step in the ever-widening expansion of executive power—an expression of the reactionization of the state as imperialism deepens its decomposition. Bondi’s recent memorandum builds on precedent established in Acts like the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798, the Homeland Security Act, and the Patriot Act whereby the executive branch has steadily increased its size and the scope of its powers, reflecting its historical tendency to expand as dictated by the needs of the capitalist class. As the US imperialists’ economic crisis deepens, they seek to apply more and more repression at home, feeling that their rule is increasingly threatened both in the oppressed nations and at home.

Image: Attorney General Pam Bondi at a press conference in June. White House photo.

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