Trump designates antifa as a “domestic terrorist organization”

This evening, the White House released a new executive order signed by President Trump, designating “antifa” as a “domestic terrorist organization.” 

Chip Gibbons, Policy Director at Defending Rights & Dissent, responded to the announcement:

“There is no law that allows the president to designate a domestic organization as terrorists.

While Trump’s Executive Order is without statutory basis, a close read of the language mirrors existing FBI powers, such as “terrorist enterprise investigations” into “anarchist extremists.” The order appears to be a green light to law enforcement and intelligence to spy on and investigate leftwing political speech.

Given the FBI’s current guidelines, which encourage preventative intelligence in the name of counter terrorism, the FBI will have no problem continuing its sordid history of preemptively investigating political speech under the pretext of thwarting terrorism.”

Gibbons is author of the forthcoming The Imperial Bureau: The FBI, Political Surveillance, and the Rise of the U.S. National Security State.

Defending Rights & Dissent is a national civil liberties organization that defends the American people’s right to know and freedom to act through grassroots mobilization, public education, policy expertise, and advocacy journalism. In 2017, Gibbons and Defending Rights & Dissent filed a FOIA request for the FBI’s Antifa files. Although the FBI has acknowledged it holds responsive files, it has yet to turn them over. 

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