Washington, D.C. — A new report from House Administration Committee Democrats, led by Ranking Member Joe Morelle (D-NY), documents the Trump administration’s coordinated campaign to turn federal power against nonprofits, journalists, law firms, universities, and voter registration groups.
The report lays out the full scope of the assault: DOJ’s indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center over the informants it used to take down the Ku Klux Klan, the IRS teaming up with the FBI to hunt for invented “domestic terrorism” links, dozens of FBI agents raiding an Ohio voter registration group, and James Comer’s latest fishing expedition into Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Congressional Integrity Project has tracked this campaign all year, from Trump’s weaponization of the IRS to House Republicans’ sham hearings targeting civil society. The committee’s findings document the whole scheme for the first time, on the congressional record and in one place.
Congressional Integrity Project Senior Adviser Jeremy Funk released the following statement:
“Donald Trump is using every tool of the federal government to punish the organizations that feed hungry families, register voters, defend civil rights, and hold him accountable. This report lays it all out in black and white: flimsy indictments, IRS threats, FBI raids on voter registration groups, and Republican investigations designed to drain nonprofits of time and money. The Trump administration can’t justify their actions on the merits, so they’re trying to scare nonprofits into silence. It won’t work. Throughout history, civil society has always stood up to tyrants, and it’ll outlast this one too.”
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