Inside the War on Antifa

Feds target "affinity" groups, informant networks, the Tides Foundation, and more.

Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem speaks at the Antifa Roundtable

The FBI and the homeland security department are actively investigating “Antifa” individuals and organizations that the Trump administration has branded domestic terrorists. Actions so far include collecting intelligence on Antifa “affinity” groups, canvassing the FBI’s vast informant network for tips about Antifa, and scrutinizing financial records, two sources involved in the investigations tell me.

While major media organizations continue to downplay the crackdown and virtually ignore the underlying executive order and related national security directive NSPM-7 that are driving the new crusade, sources say that the investigations will likely rival in scope those conducted under the Biden administration on January 6 perpetrators.

“Lawsuits will undoubtedly follow, as will much belly-aching about the Trump team not following established procedures, but no one should doubt the orders that have come down from on high to destroy Antifa,” a senior career homeland security official told me.

At a White House roundtable event about the threat of Antifa last week, President Trump and other administration officials likened the loose “anti-fascist” anarchist collective to an international terrorist group or an organized crime syndicate.

“Antifa is just as sophisticated as MS-13, as TDA [Tren de Aragua], as ISIS, as Hezbollah, as Hamas, as all of em,” Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem said at the event.

“Fighting crime is more than just getting the bad guy off the streets,” added Attorney General Pam Bondi. “It’s breaking down the organization brick by brick, just like we did with cartels.”

“ What we are doing at the FBI is simple,” said FBI Director Kash Patel. “We are following the money. Money never lies. And that’s what it’s going to take to bring down this network of organized criminal thugs, gang bangers, and yes, domestic terrorists because that’s what they are.”

At one point, President Trump instructed several prominent conservative media figures present — all of whom said they’d been victimized by Antifa for reporting on them — to share their knowledge with top national security officials.

“Do you know the name of any of the funders?” Trump asked the roundtable. “Because if you do, I’d like you to give them to Kash or Pam or Kristi — as soon as you can.”

The floundering attempts to actually find an organized Antifa entity reflects a virtually 180 degree turn from previous government articulations of the group. Former FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress that although Antifa is a “real thing … it’s not a group or an organization.” Wray instead likened Antifa to “a movement or an ideology.”

Not believing that Antifa doesn’t have an overall organizational structure, the Trump administration is now setting out to find one. According to the homeland security source, a list is circulating of “affinity” groups that ascribe to the Antifa “ideology.” These include Rose City Antifa in Portland, Oregon; Refuse Fascism; Anti-Racist Action (ARA); Redneck Revolt; and the John Brown Gun Club. The official says the list comes from nothing more sophisticated than Internet searches and right-wing influencer channels.

This week, conservative commentator Glenn Beck said that three FBI agents visited him at his home last Saturday to glean insights about Antifa based on the research he and his team had done for stories.

“ To say the FBI was interested in this might be an understatement,” Beck said on his show. “Let’s just say the FBI is turning over every single stone. It is so clear to me that they are exploring all angles of this and they are talking to anyone and everyone that can give them any kind of information.”

The FBI declined to comment on Beck’s account as well as the Bureau’s canvassing of its informants, citing the government shutdown. “During the current lapse in appropriations, FBI operations are directed toward national security, violations of federal law, and essential public safety functions,” the Bureau’s National Press Office responded in an email. “Media inquiries outside of these functions will be considered when the lapse in appropriations ends.”

NSPM-7, the Trump directive tasking federal law enforcement with rooting out domestic terrorists like Antifa, also instructed the Treasury Department to look into nonprofit groups that might be funding them. The directive resulted in prominent law firms advising their nonprofit clients to avoid running afoul of the order, as I previously reported.

“ I also wanna thank our Treasury Secretary for his work on getting to the bottom of these funding mechanisms and individuals who are perpetuating this violence on our American cities,” Noem said at the roundtable.

The homeland official says two funders are being scrutinized: The Tides Foundation; and Neville “Roy” Singham, an American multi-millionaire who is known to provide support to leftist causes. Again, the official says, the organizations were chosen because they have been written about by right-wing media.

Despite Trump’s designation of Antifa as a “domestic terrorist organization,” NSPM-7, and most recently the White House’s Antifa Roundtable, major media still aren’t impressed. Mary McCord, Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security during the Obama administration, downplayed any significance of Trump’s directives while commentating at an MSNBC panel this week.

“ Nothing in NSPM-7 actually provides, creates a new crime, creates any new surveillance, authority, creates any new investigative authority. So the … the government still has to, at least by law, comply with the existing law, right? So if it’s going to search someone’s electronic communications, it needs a warrant based on probable cause. That evidence of a crime will be found there, signed by a judge, right? If it’s gonna bring charges, it has to go in front of the grand jury and prove it. Evidenced by probable cause. So it does not, it’s not licensed to just suddenly charge, you know, organizations with crimes or take away their tax exempt status.”

That same day, Pam Bondi was on Fox News saying basically the exact opposite.

“We’re going to get to the funding of Antifa, we’re going to get to the root of Antifa, and we’re going to find and charge all of those people,” Bondi said. “They’re no different from MS-13 or any gang out there.”

We’re going to “eliminate Antifa from existence,” says Kristi Noem.

That is, if they can find it.

— Edited by William M. Arkin