Trump signs memo targeting ‘domestic terrorism’ amid fears of leftwing crackdown | US politics

Donald Trump published a presidential memorandum aimed at reinstateing what he described as a “terrorist network” on the left left of the left, but which seemed likely to respond to a fierce legal decline in criticisms, on Thursday.

Presented by journalists, Trump suggested that George Soros, the Hungarian philanthropist of the billionaire who finances the foundations of the open society, could be in his goal. He also identified Reid Hoffman, a billionaire capital capital, adding: “I hear about him. Maybe it could be him. It could be many people.”

Earlier, the foundations of the open society had retaliated in the information that the Ministry of Justice planned to target the group and criticized the Trump administration for “politically motivated attacks against civil society”.

During a signature ceremony at the Oval Office, the memorandum was presented as aimed at “establishing a complete strategy to investigate, disturb and dismantle all stages of organized political violence and domestic terrorism”.

He would have been part of a response to the administration level which would include the joint working working group, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of the Treasury.

Surrounded by members of his cabinet, Trump said that the objective was to target “the donors of many of these groups”, some of whom claimed to know. But he was vague when he was asked what groups he meant or who were the donors.

“They are anarchists and agitators, anarchists and professional agitators, and they are hired by rich people, some of whom I know, I suppose, probably know,” he said. “You cannot dinner with them. Everything is good, and then you discover that they have financed millions of dollars to these crazy people.”

Daniel Richman, professor at Columbia Law School and former federal prosecutor, said that the memorandum itself probably does not contain much legal weight. “You cannot by decree, creation of new crimes. This does not create new crimes. That said you will use the working group on terrorism to continue the things they would generally pursue,” said Richman.

But, he added: “The concern is that this administration clearly indicated that it is only interested in pursuing terrorism politically originally which does not agree with its political program.”

The Trump administration does not need to create new crimes to do this, he said. The laws already on books “have and continue to provide the possibility of pursuing ideological adversaries”.

Although the memorandum cannot resist the court, “I fear how far they will take this,” said Jason Charter, a former activist who faced charges during Trump’s first mandate in connection with the efforts to demolish the statue of Andrew Jackson in front of the White House. “Antifa is anti -fascism, and anti -fascism is a very widely shared thing, and being against fascism should not be illegal.”

“He tries to slam accusations of terrorism on people who do protected activities under the Declaration of Rights,” said Charter.

The memorandum comes in the middle of a right -wing clamor for the remuneration following the murder of September 10 of the far right Charlie Kirk, whom Trump and his supporters blamed on an organized left network, despite the first indications that the suspect acted alone.

He also followed the deadly attack on Wednesday against an American immigration and customs application (ICE) in Dallas who killed an inmate and injured two others. One of the bullets used in the attack was written with the “anti-ice” message.

The memorandum brings together a series of apparently independent episodes, including an assassination attempt in 2022 on the judge of the Supreme Court Brett Kavanaugh, the murder of the CEO of United Healthcare in Manhattan last December, the two unsuccessful attempts last year on the life of Trump, and disorders in the streets of Los Angeles and Portland.

Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff of the influential white house – who was vocal in previous calls from administration to repression – called the “historic and significant” initiative.

“It is the first time in American history that there has been an effort all in government to dismantle left terrorism, to dismantle Antifa, to dismantle the organizations that have carried out these acts of political violence and terrorism,” said Miller. The joint working group of terrorism, a unit inside the FBI, would be “the center” of the effort, he added.

He said that “a whole system of food organizations” was funding “harassment, doxing, intimidation and, ultimately, assassinations” at the officials.

“Everything is carefully planned, executed and thoughtful,” said Miller. “It is terrorism on our soil. We will use all the strength of the federal government to uproot these organizations, root and branch. ”

Trump and his allies described political violence as a phenomenon mainly associated with the left, overlooking recent incidents in which the Democrats have been targeted by people who are right -wing extremists or incidents in which the reasons of the aggressor are not clear.

On Wednesday on his Truth social network, Trump clearly linked the attack on ice facilities to the Democrats and their criticisms of his repression of immigration in a manner resembling his response to Kirk murder.

“This violence is the result of the radical democrats of the left constantly demonizing the application of the law, calling for the demolition of ice, and by comparing the” Nazis “ice officers,” he wrote. “The continuous violence of the Radical Terrorists on the left, following the assassination of Charlie Kirk, must be arrested. Ice officers and other courageous members of the police are threatened by Grave. »»

But the authorities said Thursday that they had not found any evidence that the suspect was a member of “any specific group or entity, and he not mentioned any specific government agency other than ice”.

In the wake of Kirk’s murder, Trump published a decree designating Antifa, a loose network of groups that have been involved in confrontations with the far right, as a “national terrorist organization”.

The new memorandum says: “This political violence is not a series of isolated incidents and does not emerge in an organic way. Instead, this is a culmination of sophisticated and organized campaigns of targeted intimidation, radicalization, threats and violence designed to silence the opposing discourse, limit political activities, change or direct political results, and prevent the functioning of a democratic society.

“A new law enforcement strategy which investigates all participants in these criminal and terrorist plots – including organized structures, networks, entities, organizations, funding sources and the actions of predicates behind them – is required.”