Trump administration plans to go after left-leaning groups is prompting fear among nonprofits and activists that the government will run roughshod over the first amendment in their pledges to target them in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s death.
Vice President Vance and Stephen Miller, a White House deputy chief of staff, made clear they would use Kirk’s death as a rallying cry to target left-wing groups they claimed were disproportionately responsible for provoking political violence.
“With God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice, Homeland Security and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy these networks and make America safe again for the American people,” Miller said in a conversation with Vance, who was guest hosting Kirk’s show this week.
“We’re going to go after the NGO network that foments, facilitates and engages in violence,” Vance added.
There’s no indication Kirk’s shooter had broader associations, but Vance vaguely accused “radical left lunatics” of fomenting extremism.
It’s not clear what the legal basis would be for any prosecution and also unclear is who they plan to go after – though 100 different nonprofits immediately sensed they may be a target.
In an open letter Wednesday, the groups – which have spoken out against political violence – said such moves would impact both their advocacy and their funding.
“Organizations should not be attacked for carrying out their missions or expressing their values in support of the communities they serve. 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. Attempts to silence speech, criminalize opposing viewpoints, and misrepresent and limit charitable giving undermine our democracy and harm all Americans,” the coalition said in the letter.
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) said such efforts would be a clear abuse of the justice system and a constitution that protects free speech, but would nonetheless let the process be the punishment for vulnerable groups.
“They are just looking for an excuse to go after nonprofits, liberal groups…what they call the racial left…so that they can bring the weight of the federal government down on them, even though they have no evidence that they have done anything wrong that would warrant an investigation,” Goldman, a former federal prosecutor, told The Hill.
“They could come up with some, you know, small nonprofit that supports immigrants, or that opposes domestic violent extremists or white nationalists, And they could issue subpoenas all their documents and records and all this stuff, which would then require them to get a lawyer and require them to spend tens of thousands of dollars just responding to the subpoena,” he added, saying it could “can bankrupt them and destroy them.”
“Many small organizations do not have that money, and so this is really just a pretext to run these small organizations out of business.”
The comments come amid a broader effort by the Trump administration to target speech in the wake of Kirk’s death.
Vance endorsed calling out and even reaching out to the employer of those viewed as having unsavory views.
And Attorney General Pam Bondi found herself in hot water after saying she would go after those who promote hate speech – which is largely protected under the First Amendment – and even threatened to prosecute Office Depot over an employee’s refusal to print posters for a vigil honoring Kirk.
Nonetheless, administration officials are said to be preparing an executive order that would address political violence, though the details of that order are still being finalized.
In the meantime, multiple Justice Department officials have suggested they could use federal racketeering laws, known as RICO, to target left-wing groups that they claim are working together to target others through doxxing.
In raising the idea of RICO charges, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche this week cited the case of a group of progressives who protested the president during a night out in Washington, D.C., for dinner.
Vance also suggested the administration could specifically target the Ford Foundation and the Open Society Foundations, both of which have ties to liberal megadonor George Soros.
And Trump late Wednesday announced he was designating Antifa as a domestic terrorist group, a move that won plaudits on the right but had unclear practical implications.
Trump previously made a similar declaration in 2020, and federal officials have said Antifa is a decentralized movement without a clear leader or structure. Trump on Wednesday said he would recommend investigations into those funding Antifa, an indication the declaration could be used to more broadly crackdown on left-wing groups the administration is skeptical of.
However, most major left-leaning groups and institutions have categorically condemned Kirk’s killing and political violence generally.
“They’re just trying to be very threatening to left wing, or groups that they perceive to be left wing. And I think it’s red meat for their base….There’s no evidence I’ve seen that any of these particular groups did anything to feed into the murder,” said Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.), a former prosecutor.
“So I think it’s an overall attack on the First Amendment, ironically, because they’re trying to praise Kirk for being such a First Amendment proponent, but they’re doing things to undermine it across the board.”
Ivey said he saw no avenue to bring any charges against groups.
“I haven’t even heard grounds for a civil lawsuit against anybody. I haven’t seen anything really that would fall even close to that category. Certainly nothing to prosecute,” he said.
Blanche’s suggestion of RICO charges was also panned by the two former prosecutors.
“I think it demonstrates that they don’t know what they’re talking about,” Ivey said.
But Goldman, a former colleague of Blanche in the Southern District of New York, said the deputy attorney general was improperly citing RICO despite his familiarity with such cases.
“There’s no coordinated organization, and to start talking about RICO, where you would have to prove a criminal enterprise that is in the business of committing crimes and that has committed specific racketeering acts to be connected somehow to hate speech, is totally preposterous and is yet another degradation of the Department of Justice. And I’m frankly embarrassed for Todd Blanche that he actually went on TV and said that,” he said.
“Because I worked with Todd Blanche. Todd Blanche charged a lot of RICO cases when he was there. He knows what a RICO case is, and he knows that there is no possible way to use hate speech as a predicate for a RICO case, and for him to mislead the American people on national television about that brings disgrace to the Department of Justice.”
Some GOP voices have criticized the Trump administration for suggesting the Justice Department go after such groups.
“It’s not very unifying. There are some people saying terrible things out there, but the president and the vice president have the opportunity to speak to our higher angels. And you know, there’s Democrats who’ve been targeted. So I just, I wish it was more unifying,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a moderate, told The Hill.
“And by the way, I don’t mind shaming people if they say something bad. But using the force of government is not about freedom of speech. It’s anti freedom of speech. So I’m not aligned with the behavior. They don’t have the power – the constitution gives people the right to say what they want.”
But Trump’s allies in Congress have also raised their eyebrows at the comments.
“Look, in America, it’s a very important part of our tradition that we do not — this is a conservative principle and certainly an American principle — we do not censor and silence disfavored viewpoints,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told reporters this week.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) didn’t directly respond to the threats of prosecution but floated a select committee in Congress that could play a role in reviewing the work of left leaning groups.
He mentioned Soros’s group, migrant support groups, as well as the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit that works on voting rights and criminal justice reform in addition to its work monitoring white supremacists and other extremist groups.
“We just need to pursue the truth. And I present it to the American people,” he said.
“What I’m saying is the American people need to know the organization of the left. They act like they’re all like freakin’ puppies and unicorns and rainbows. ‘Look at us. We’re so nice. We love everybody.’ And the fact is, there, it’s an organized effort to attack the people that I represent.”
