By Sarah N. Lynch
WASHINGTON, Dec 4 (Reuters) – U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi on Thursday ordered federal law enforcement to step up investigations into the anti-fascist antifa movement and similar “extremist groups,” and asked the FBI to compile a list of entities possibly engaged in domestic terrorism, according to an internal memo reviewed by Reuters.
The memo, which was sent to prosecutors and federal law enforcement agencies, calls on the Justice Department to prioritize investigating and prosecuting acts of domestic terrorism, including any potential “tax crimes” involving “extremist groups” who defrauded the Internal Revenue Service.
It comes several months after President Donald Trump signed an order targeting antifa as a terrorist organization and pledged to go after left-wing groups following the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
Antifa, short for anti-fascist, is a “decentralized, leaderless movement composed of loose collections of groups, networks and individuals,” according to the Anti-Defamation League, which tracks extremists.
A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the memo.
“These domestic terrorists use violence or the threat of violence to advance political and social agendas, including opposition to law and immigration enforcement; extreme views in favor of mass migration and open borders; adherence to radical gender ideology, anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, or anti-Christianity,” Bondi wrote in the memo.
She wrote that the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces “shall prioritize the investigation of such conduct.”
She also ordered federal law enforcement agencies to scour their files for any intelligence they may have on antifa groups and provide it to investigators.
The FBI and joint terrorism task forces will also be asked to investigate incidents over the past five years that may have involved acts of domestic terrorism, from the doxxing of law enforcement to the targeting of Supreme Court justices, according to the memo.
After the FBI compiles a list of possible groups engaged in alleged acts of domestic terrorism, the agency is required to develop new strategies similar to those used to counter violent and organized crime to “disrupt and dismantle entire networks of criminal activity.”
The memo also calls on the department’s grant-making offices to prioritize awarding funding to states and municipalities that have programs designed to protect against domestic terrorism, and it instructs the FBI to update and improve its tip line so that “witnesses and citizen journalists can send media of suspected acts of domestic terrorism.”
(Reporting by Sarah Lynch; Editing by Michelle Nichols and Tom Hogue)
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