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On Thursday, a senior Department of Justice (DOJ) official directed staff to begin investigating billionaire Democratic donor George Soros, who has long been the target of a vast array of bunk, antisemitic conspiracy theories, including some spread by President Donald Trump.
The DOJ directive lists possible charges that could be filed by prosecutors, including arson and material support of terrorism, according to The New York Times.
The directive comes after Trump posted a lengthy rant to Truth Social on Wednesday reiterating his intention to target groups that he deems to be funding or aiding “radical leftist terrorists” in the United States.
“We have already declared ANTIFA a Terrorist Organization, and I will be signing an Executive Order this week to dismantle these Domestic Terrorism Networks,” Trump wrote.
Trump cited the killing of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk as a motivating factor for targeting left-leaning people and organizations, as well as a shooting this week at an ICE jail in Dallas. However, there is no evidence that either of the gunmen were affiliated with left-wing groups.
In response to Kirk’s killing, Trump has escalated his crackdown on free speech. On Monday, Trump signed an executive order officially declaring “antifa” to be a domestic terrorist organization, despite the fact that the U.S. has no legal framework to do so.
Notably, “antifa” is not an actual organization — rather, it is a political stance, a shortening of the term “anti-fascist.” Several organizations include the “antifa” designation in their description, but there is no central authority funding or governing them.
The president also said on Wednesday that he recently spoke to Attorney General Pam Bondi about using the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act against left-leaning organizations. Although the law was created to target organized crime, government officials have attempted to use the threat of RICO charges as a cudgel against protesters in recent years. Trump baselessly accused Soros of racketeering earlier this month, calling for him to be imprisoned for his contributions to progressive causes.
Trump’s assertion that left-leaning groups are to blame for most political violence is false, as a study conducted by The Conversation has shown. Indeed, the vast majority of politically-motivated violence in the U.S. has emanated from the right.
“Based on government and independent analyses, right-wing extremist violence has been responsible for the overwhelming majority of fatalities, amounting to approximately 75 percent to 80 percent of U.S. domestic terrorism deaths since 2001,” the authors of that analysis wrote.
Dozens of left-leaning and progressive nonprofits have vowed to challenge the president’s efforts to criminalize dissent.
“Organizations should not be attacked for carrying out their missions or expressing their values in support of the communities they serve,” an open letter from around 100 such groups stated last week. “We reject attempts to exploit political violence to mischaracterize our good work or restrict our fundamental freedoms, like freedom of speech and the freedom to give.”
Press freedom is under attack
As Trump cracks down on political speech, independent media is increasingly necessary.
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