Two New Reports Expose a Two-Track System: Terrorize Civil Society, Protect Right-Wing Allies
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Yesterday CBS News revealed that the Trump administration has stood up a joint FBI-IRS task force to investigate nonprofits for alleged domestic terrorism links, another step in their politically-charged war on nonprofits they disagree with. Today, the New York Times is reporting that a top Justice Department official instructed federal prosecutors to go after protesters with “everything you have.” These are not law enforcement initiatives. They are the latest escalations in Republicans’ coordinated campaign to weaponize government power against civil society organizations that oppose their agenda.
AG Bondi’s own memo gives the game away. It lists “opposition to immigration enforcement,” “radical gender ideology,” and “anti-capitalism” as markers of extremism. Those are not legal definitions. They are a Republican policy checklist. The same ideology is driving the protest crackdown: the directive used to justify charging demonstrators targets beliefs, not conduct.
The double standard is glaring. Trump pardoned hundreds of people convicted of violently storming the U.S. Capitol. His administration has looked the other way as right-wing extremist groups — which the FBI’s own data shows are responsible for the majority of domestic terrorism in this country — operate freely. Meanwhile, the DOJ is branding protesters terrorists and indicting journalists like Don Lemon, even after a federal judge found no evidence of a crime.
This task force also directly contradicts sworn testimony before Congress. Two weeks ago, Trump’s IRS chief told the House Ways and Means Committee under oath that the administration had not targeted any organization for political reasons. The Congressional Integrity Project documented that claim was false at the time. This task force proves it.
The Congressional Integrity Project issued the following statement:
“Trump and his Republican allies have spent years trying to use the IRS, the Justice Department, and Congress itself as weapons against organizations that oppose their agenda — holding sham hearings, launching baseless investigations, and now standing up a permanent FBI-IRS task force to do it. This is the same playbook every time: use the veneer of oversight to intimidate donors, dry up resources, and silence the organizations holding this administration accountable. The chilling effect is the point.”
There is no federal crime called “domestic terrorism.” The label gives this administration unchecked discretion to brand any group it disfavors with maximum political stigma and zero legal precision. Congressional Republicans who claim to oppose government overreach have said nothing. They won’t.
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