How Trump Became the Ringmaster of Left-Wing Violence
But this year’s surge has given Trump a pretext, and he’s taking maximum advantage. In the 1960s, Hoover infiltrated radical and so-called radical groups. Trump’s instinct is to follow the money. A National Joint Terrorism Task Force will target “individual and institutional funders, and officers and employees of organizations, that are responsible for, sponsor, or otherwise aid and abet the principal actors” in domestic terrorism. That’s a very broad brush. So is the memo’s definition of “domestic terrorism,” which includes “trespass,” “doxing,” and “civil disorder,” whatever that means. On the same day the memo was issued, Aakash Singh, who works in the office of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, sent a separate memo to U.S. attorneys directing them to prosecute George Soros’s Open Society Foundations for material support for terrorism and other crimes.
The Washington law firm Wilmer Hale, which is nobody’s idea of a left-wing alarmist, immediately warned its nonprofit clients that the result will be IRS investigations, “potential terrorism designations for organizations viewed as promoting progressive causes,” and “attempts to block assets of nonprofit organizations.” In a similar vein, Arnold & Porter said, “By targeting tax-exempt organizations and funders targeted based on ideological considerations, the Presidential Memorandum and investigative actions implementing it could raise significant issues under the First Amendment.”
It may be hard for Trump to get convictions, but winning in court probably isn’t his aim; it never has been in the past. As one former counterterrorism lawyer for the Justice Department told Josh Kovensky of Talking Points Memo, “It’s a legal nullity in many respects, but financial institutions don’t care about that.” Translation: This will scare banks away from doing business with liberal nongovernment organizations and other nonprofits. Who needs the hassle?