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TPM has found:

Federal prosecutors have recharged conduct as material support for terrorism in cases where defendants were associated with left-wing causes including Black Lives Matter or trans rights activism.

This came after the issuance of NSPM-7, the September memo that directed prosecutors to consider those who espouse “anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity” as targets for domestic terrorism cases.

One charge, depredation of government property, has not used in a material support for terrorism case for at least a decade before 2025, a TPM review found. It can apply to anything from breaking the windows of a building to spraypainting.

In one case, prosecutors charged several people with material support while relying on coordinated dress — black bloc — as a link to an alleged terrorist plot.

FBI Director Kash Patel, Attorney General Pam Bondi, and other Trump appointees have promoted the cases as part of a broader fight against Antifa.
These prosecutions have ripple effects. In Texas, state prosecutors have brought “hindering the prosecution of terrorism” charges against three people who weren’t at the July 4 event at the ICE facility; a warrant in one state case included a reference to a White House Executive Order designating “Antifa” as a domestic terrorist organization in seeking probable cause. Legal experts say the order is meaningless as domestic terrorist organizations do not exist under federal law.

Earlier cases using the material support for terrorism statute required months or years of preparation, former prosecutors tell Taking Points Memo, because of the law’s severity, because of a high standard of proof embedded in its provisions, and, paradoxically, because of the relative ease with which the government can bring the charge. Under 2339A, prosecutors do not need to accuse people of belonging to or helping a specific terrorist group. As long as they show that someone knowingly intended to help commit a crime that Congress has listed as a terrorism offense, they can be prosecuted for material support.