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FBI and IRS Launch Mission Control to Target Left-Leaning Nonprofits for Terror Links

FBI and IRS Launch Mission Control to Target Left-Leaning Nonprofits for Terror Links
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FBI and IRS agents created a joint “mission control” hub to scrutinize U.S. nonprofit organizations for suspected links to domestic terrorism, in an initiative that expanded a Trump administration campaign to trace and potentially cut off funding to left-leaning groups and protest movements cbsnews. The move followed a December 4, 2025 directive from Attorney General Pam Bondi ordering federal law enforcement to prioritize investigations of “extremist” groups, including antifa-linked organizations, and to consider “tax crimes” in their cases cbsnews.

The push rested on a broader framework laid out in National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM‑7), issued on September 25, 2025, which instructed agencies to “counter domestic terrorism and organized political violence” by mapping, investigating, and disrupting the networks and funders behind such activity aclu. While the memorandum cited existing statutory definitions of domestic terrorism, civil liberties groups argued it sought to create a de facto domestic “designation” regime without congressional authorization aclu +1.

How the New Investigations Work — and Who Is in the Crosshairs

Under the plan, FBI-led Joint Terrorism Task Forces were told to trace the finances, relationships, and communications of people and organizations suspected of involvement in or support for political violence, while IRS Criminal Investigation agents were embedded in an FBI command center on one-year tours cbsnews. A Justice Department spokesperson said the department was “fully committed” to bringing to justice those whose conduct meets Congress’s definition of domestic terrorism cbsnews.

Documents and reporting indicated that the administration’s internal lists and talking points homed in on liberal and progressive organizations, including the Open Society network, ActBlue, Indivisible, Jewish Voice for Peace, IfNotNow, and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, among others, which officials or allies portrayed as part of an “antifa” or anti‑capitalist ecosystem democracydocket +1. Those groups denied organizing or funding violence and described the effort as an attempt to criminalize opposition; an Indivisible spokesperson said the claims were “smears designed to delegitimize our movement” reuters.

Financial pressure became a central tool. In 2025, court filings showed the FBI, Environmental Protection Agency and Treasury asked Citibank to place 30‑day administrative freezes on accounts tied to nonprofits that received money from the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, temporarily blocking access for groups including Habitat for Humanity and United Way theintercept. A federal judge later pressed government lawyers to explain what evidence, beyond political objections, justified the freezes theintercept.

Civil Liberties Backlash and Unsettled Law

Civil rights organizations and legal scholars warned the initiative pushed federal power into largely untested territory. U.S. law defines “domestic terrorism” at 18 U.S.C. §2331(5) but does not create a standalone domestic terrorism crime or a mechanism to label U.S. organizations as terrorist groups, unlike the formal designation process for foreign terrorist organizations cbsnews +1. “No president can rewrite the Constitution,” argued the ACLU’s Hina Shamsi, who said NSPM‑7 could not by itself authorize domestic designations and risked punishing protected speech and association aclu.

Analyses from the ACLU and Brennan Center for Justice said the administration was effectively trying to bolt national-security tools designed for foreign threats onto domestic civil society: leveraging Joint Terrorism Task Forces, bank surveillance, grant freezes and IRS referrals in ways that could chill protest and charitable giving even without charges or convictions aclu +1. Some state leaders went further, with governors in Texas and Florida issuing orders attempting to label the Muslim civil rights group CAIR as a terrorist organization under state law, moves Stanford legal experts described as constitutionally dubious and potentially “laying the groundwork for even more sweeping forms of authoritarianism” nyclu.

The Bigger Picture

The emerging fight over these investigations has become a test of where legal lines sit between combating genuine political violence and weaponizing security and tax powers against disfavored viewpoints. With no clear statutory framework for designating domestic groups, much now hinges on courts, Congress and state officials: whether they constrain the use of terrorism and tax authorities against nonprofits, or allow a patchwork of federal and state actions that could redefine the landscape for advocacy, philanthropy and protest in the United States.