TO: Interested Parties
FROM: Congressional Integrity Project
DATE: Jan 6, 2025
RE: Four years after January 6, 2021, MAGA Republicans are still threatening Trump’s perceived political enemies
Donald Trump and his MAGA Republican allies on Capitol Hill have made it crystal-clear that those they perceive as political enemies are under threat – and nonprofits doing extraordinary work ranging from charities to advocacy groups and even universities are among those they intend to target. Trump is modeling his second term on Project 2025, which included plans to attack nonprofits, researchers, and civil society groups studying and flagging election denier lies. His cabinet is already filling up with vindictive lackeys with records of targeting nonprofits with whom they disagree.
Their allies in Congress have also indicated that they have no qualms going after nonprofits and individuals on Trump’s enemies list. Some Congressional Republicans have said they plan to continue their baseless investigations into President Biden and his family, and have passed laws targeting nonprofits. The stakes couldn’t be higher for progressive organizations and those that support them as Trump prepares to take power.
Congressional Republicans Continue To Downplay the Severity of the Insurrection of January 6, 2021 While Trump Vows To Pardon The Violent Insurrectionists
Four years after the January 6, 2021 violent insurrection at the Capitol, House Republicans continue to push false narratives about January 6 and shift blame away from Donald Trump Even as he prepares to take the oath of office on January 20, Donald Trump remains obsessed with the big lie that he won the 2020 election. On January 4, 2025 President-elect Trump hosted a party at Mar-A-Lago celebrating his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Trump gave remarks to guests, including Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Michael Waltz, praising attorney John Eastman’s role in pressuring then-Vice President Mike Pence not to certify the results of the presidential vote.
Trump has repeatedly promised to pardon the violent insurrectionists sentenced to prison for crimes committed on January 6 on “day one” of his presidency. Most Congressional Republicans have failed to speak out against these pardons, and some of Trump’s closest allies on the Hill, like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Rep. Mike Collins, have urged the president-elect to pardon every January 6 defendant, including those that violently attacked law enforcement officers while vandalizing the Capitol.
House Republicans are even delaying putting up a plaque honoring police officers who protected the Capitol on January 6, as required by a provision in the fiscal 2022 spending law. The plaque was to be placed “at a permanent location” on the West Front, where the fighting was particularly intense, by March 2023 according to the law. Nearly a year after this deadline, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson refuses to give an update on the status of the plaque.
Trump and Republicans Have Vowed To Weaponize The Government And Their Congressional Majority Against Their Political Opponents Through Investigations And Prosecutions
GOP members of Congress are openly pledging to continue their never-ending string of politically motivated investigations of Democrats in 2025. Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer told Sean Hannity that “in my opinion Joe Biden has committed crimes” and Assistant Whip Nicole Malliotakis emphasized that House investigations of Hunter Biden “must continue” even after his presidential pardon. House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan has said that his committee will focus on investigating Special Counsel David Weiss for his alleged “sweetheart” treatment of the Hunter Biden prosecution and Special Counsel Jack Smith for his investigations of Donald Trump.
Donald Trump has repeatedly called for the investigation and imprisonment of January 6 committee members, including Liz Cheney and Rep. Bennie Thompson, telling Meet the Press in December that “For what they did…I think everybody on the [committee], anybody that voted in favor [should go to jail].” Trump’s congressional allies are poised to comply with his desire for politically motivated revenge investigations. Rep. Barry Loudermilk has demanded a select committee to launch yet another investigation into the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol and of the original January 6 committee. Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer similarly reacted with outrage to President Joe Biden’s decision to award Liz Cheney the Presidential Citizens Medal, calling it a “slap in the face to all the good Americans who actually deserve to be recognized for their public service or for their sacrifice or for their community activism.”
Congressional Republicans Will Target Progressive Groups, Nonprofits, Universities, and Protestors They Disagree With.
In just the past few months alone, GOP members of Congress have launched several efforts to target tax-exempt organizations supporting causes they disagree with. In May, Senator Josh Hawley sent a letter to the Justice Department demanding that the DOJ shut down tax-exempt organizations supporting protestors, writing, “No organization may retain its tax exemption if it backs protests at which members are urged to commit acts of civil disobedience. […] In short, by supporting illegal acts while enjoying tax-exempt status, dark money groups and foundations are defrauding the American people…” As a New York Times columnist wrote, “Even if Garland doesn’t act on Hawley’s request, the attorney general in a second Donald Trump administration probably would.” Days later, over a dozen GOP Senators sent a letter to the IRS demanding an investigation into a nonprofit supporting student protestors. Similarly, Senator J.D. Vance introduced a bill in May withdrawing all federal support for, and slapping a 50 percent excise endowment tax on, universities failing to stop student protests. In the House, Rep. Lloyd Smucker also introduced legislation targeting nonprofits’ foreign grants, basing his legislation on COVID-19 conspiracies about tax-exempt grant funding going to “gain-of-function” research related to a lab in the same Chinese city where the pandemic originated.
Republicans closed out the 118th Congress with one last hearing targeting progressive groups, a December 18 hearing in the House Administration investigating “foreign interference” in the election by entities including ActBlue. Speaker Mike Johnson has promised that this investigation of ActBlue and progressive groups and campaigns will continue in the 119th Congress.
On Nov. 21, the MAGA House passed H.R. 9495 a bill giving the second Trump administration broad new powers to punish and shut down tax-exempt organizations – including universities, non-profits, and even news outlets. Described as a “gift for Trump” by reporters, reporters pointed to Trump’s previous attempts to designate antifacist and pro-Palestinian protestors as terrorists and radicals, writing “That’s a frightening prospect given…his open desire to quell dissent with violence, and his frequent classification of those who disagree with him as the ‘enemy from within.’ And frankly, considering Trump’s open fascination with illiberal leaders and their authoritarian style, it’s easy to imagine a Trump administration misusing this power.”
Trump Is Plotting An Imperial Presidency That Will Evade Congressional Oversight, Target His Political Enemies, And Dismantle Independent Agencies
Donald Trump is openly plotting an imperial presidency where he will seek to dismantle the civil service and disregard Congressional oversight and authority at every turn.
Less than a week after his election Trump began saying that he wants to use recess appointments to fill his cabinet positions — even though Republicans now control the Senate. On November 10, Trump threatened, “Any Republican Senator seeking the coveted LEADERSHIP position in the United States Senate must agree to Recess Appointments (in the Senate!), without which we will not be able to get people confirmed in a timely manner.”
Incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune was all too happy to comply, stating that recess appointments are “on the table” for Trump’s cabinet. House Speaker Mike Johnson has also indicated that he would be open to allowing Trump to make recess appointments because of the “very divided government” and “very partisan atmosphere.”
With no complaints from his enablers in Congress, Trump has also named numerous “special envoys” and “czars” who will operate outside of the Senate confirmation process. Trump has also named unelected billionaires Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a “Department of Government Efficiency” operating outside of the federal government without Congressional approval or authorization.
Trump has also made clear that despite Republicans controlling both chambers of Congress, he will seek to consolidate all power in the executive branch and slash government spending using an obscure legal theory known as “impoundment” that posits that presidents have sweeping power to defy Congress and withhold funding from programs they dislike. “We can simply choke off the money,” Trump said in a 2023 campaign video.
In an attempt to solidify MAGA’s stranglehold on the entire federal government, Trump has also made clear that he is seeking to end the independence of key federal agencies via his appointments:
- Trump’s Nominee For IRS Commissioner Billy Long Has A Record of Targeting Nonprofits He Disagrees With. Trump recently nominated Billy Long to lead the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which has sweeping authority over tax-exempt organizations. In 2011, former Missouri Representative Billy Long joined an effort to push the IRS to launch a probe into the tax-exempt status of a nonprofit that he disagreed with, the Humane Society of the United States, after the group supported a ballot initiative to regulate Missouri dog breeders. In 2015, Rep. Long also signed a letter demanding that the IRS investigate the tax status of the Clinton Foundation, a philanthropic group founded by former Democratic President Bill Clinton and co-headed by then-Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton from 2013 to 2015.
- Trump’s Attorney General Pick Led A MAGA Law Firm That Sued Dozens of Nonprofits Trump Disagreed With. Trump’s Attorney General nominee Pam Bondi, former Florida Attorney General, led America First Legal, a firm founded to challenge the 2020 election that has backed Trump’s legal agenda ever since. America First Legal has launched dozens of lawsuits against nonprofits supporting causes ranging from pro-Palestinian protestors to democracy groups exposing Trump’s election denial falsehoods.
- Trump’s Nominee To Run The FBI Has An Enemies List. Kash Patel, Donald Trump’s nominee for FBI director has vowed to “come after” members of the media and non-profit groups that “helped Joe Biden rig presidential elections.” Patel has also published a 60-person list of “Members of the Executive Branch Deep State” who could be targeted for investigations and prosecutions under his tenure. If confirmed, Patel could have broad powers to target and harass progressive infrastructure and non-profit groups with politically motivated investigations.