Trump Declared Antifa a Terrorist Group in 2020, Will This Time Turn Out Differently?

RedState 

President Trump used his social media platform, Truth Social, on Wednesday to declare Antifa to be a "major" terrorist organization.

I am pleased to inform our many U.S.A. Patriots that I am designating ANTIFA, A SICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER, AS A MAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION. I will also be strongly recommending that those funding ANTIFA be thoroughly investigated in accordance with the highest legal standards and practices. Thank you for your attention to this matter!

See Trump Goes There, and It's About Time: Antifa Is 'A Major Terrorist Organization' for more from my colleague.

This is not President Trump's first rodeo with Antifa. As American cities burned during the mostly peaceful and totally COVID-resistant demonstrations of the Summer of 2020 raged, it was obvious someone was calling the shots. The establishment's response to that sets the scene for where we are today.

President Donald Trump tweeted on Sunday that the U.S. government would be “designating ANTIFA as a Terrorist Organization.”

There were just two problems with that. First, he doesn’t appear to have the legal authority to do so. And second, it’s not clear that the loosely defined group of radical activists is an organization at all.

What Does President Trump's Declaration Mean?

The federal government doesn't have a provision do designate any domestic organization a terrorist group; rather, it recognizes terrorist acts. This is how it breaks out.

Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTO) are designated by the Secretary of State under Section 219 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA), as amended, a group is designated as an FTO if it meets three criteria: 1) the organization is a foreign entity; 2) the organization engages in terrorist activity (see (as defined in section 1182(a)(3)(B) of Title 8 or terrorism (as defined in section 2656f(d)(2) of Title 22), meaning that it covers acts like hijacking, sabotage, assassination, or the use of explosives or firearms with intent to endanger people or property to achieve political, religious, or ideological aims; and 3) the organization’s activities threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security of the U.S.

Specially Designated Global Terrorists were created under Executive Order 13224 by President George W. Bush on September 23, 2001. It permits the Secretary of the Treasury to designate entities or individuals as SDGTs if they: 1) Commit or pose a significant risk of committing acts of terrorism that threaten U.S. nationals or national security; 2) provide material support to designated terrorists or terrorist organizations; or 3) they are owned, controlled by, or act on behalf of an already designated terrorist group.

There is no legal provision for a domestically based terrorist organization. Section 2331(5)(a) of Title 18 defines “domestic terrorism” as criminal acts taking place with the U.S. that appear intended to 1) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; 2) to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or 3) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping.

I think that, at this stage, it makes more sense to see this as a directive from the President to the Attorney General to get serious about suppressing Antifa.

Objections

The New York Times ran an excellent, factual, though heavily politically slanted, overview of President Trump's order: Can Trump Actually Designate Antifa a Terrorist Group? Here Are the Facts.

The primary objection, other than it being an action by President Trump, is that Antifa isn't an organization; it is a philosophy.

Antifa is a label for a political subculture or protest style. The phenomenon does not have a leader, an initiation process, membership rolls, a headquarters, a bank account or a centralized structure.

Cynthia Miller-Idriss, an American University professor who studies domestic extremism, said antifa was an idea that could mobilize people. She compared it to concepts or ideologies like “white supremacy” and “Islamist extremism,” as distinguished from specific groups like the Aryan Brotherhood or Al Qaeda.

“There may be little groups organized around antifa in a neighborhood or community that meet up and share that stance, but it would be very hard to see that as connected in an organizational form that could be tackled,” she said, adding, “There is no expert I’ve ever heard of who has identified antifa as an actual organization.”

If you want to know what the truly stupid will be saying about Antifa, you can do worse than lackwit Malcolm Nance.

As The Blaze helpfully pointed out, the same arguments used today to argue Antifa is not an entity are those used to claim al Qaeda was also an idea, not an organization, while claiming you couldn't fight terrorism because it was a tactic, not a group.

Can It Work?

Probably, if the FBI can be forced to pay attention to it, there doesn't have to be an organization of formal contact to establish the predicate for a conspiracy charge. What is needed is an overt act in the commission of a crime.

The idea that Antifa is not a group is utter nonsense. While there might not be an Antifa Politburo, and I'm not convinced one is not located inside one of the vertiable forest of leftist/socialist/communist non-profits, there is a lot of evidence that some Antifa groups exist.

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The Antifa cell in Corvallis, Oregon, published a bulletin for its members on the crappy optics of their attacks, which have created for the group.

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Here, the Rose City Antifa, who appear most nights outside the ICE facility in Portland, Oregon, have thoughtfully added a membership application on their website. If you are an international traveler and wish to become an Antifa in another country, like the U.S., contact information is provided.

Both of these strongly imply there is some formal organization and communications channel behind the scenes. An idea has no need of a written after-action report on the bad image Antifa has, nor does it need membership applications or points of contact. The actions may seem local, even to members, but it would be rather silly to say there is no overarching organization. If you recall, communist movements have historically organized in cells where most were unaware of a higher echelon. Read Ward Clark's excellent Antifa's Inspiration? A Brief History of the Red Army Faction, and if we ever meet up, I can tell you about the time an Italian carabinieri pointed a submachine gun at me because he was convinced I was traveling with a Brigate Rosse cell fleeing a roundup.

Just last year, San Diego prosecutors broke up the local Antifa organization, sending 11 defendants to prison for up to two years for assault and conspiracy to riot. They argued there was no group, but "San Diego Superior Court Judge Daniel Goldstein said that the trial proved to him that antifa exists as an organization that appears to 'have funding and they have an ability to make contact and morph into other things very quickly in many different jurisdictions.'”

Last time around, Trump was at the end of his term, and he wasn't surrounded by particularly loyal or competent people. This time could be different. Trump has already made noises about going after the left-wing groups that fund civil unrest.

Trump also said he’d been discussing with Attorney General Pam Bondi the prospect of bringing racketeering charges against left-wing groups that he claimed were funding left-wing agitators.

“I’ve asked Pam to look into that in terms of RICO, bringing RICO cases,” he said, adding: “They should be put in jail, what they’re doing to this country is really subversive.”

Deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, also speaking in the Oval Office, cited a “network of organizations” that he accused of launching riots, specifically naming Black Lives Matter demonstrations.

“The key point the president has been making is somebody is paying for all of this. This is not happening for free, and so out of the president’s direction, the attorney general is going to find out who is paying for it, and they will now be criminally liable for paying for violence,” Miller added.

A focused effort to go after the money and add terrorism enhancements to their violent and subversive activities will take a lot of these goons off the street, and we'll get to lift the curtain and see if Antifa is really only an idea.