Well, Well, Well: FBI "Investigating" Members Of Extinction Rebellion, Other Environmental & Activist Groups [View all]

That didn't take long . .. .

The group in the Brooklyn studio seemed harmless. There was a graduate student, a Yiddish teacher, a hairdresser. Fifteen people had gathered on a Wednesday night for a training offered by Extinction Rebellion NYC and Climate Defiance, two climate activist groups that engage in nonviolent civil disobedience and theatrical protest. They sat in metal folding chairs eating pizza, surrounded by banners and art supplies, discussing how to gain a crowd’s attention without prompting immediate boos.

Yet their actions have apparently drawn the attention of federal counterterror investigators. Last month, an FBI agent arrived at the door of a former member, who was not at the Brooklyn meeting, saying she had questions about Extinction Rebellion. Environmental activists have long drawn scrutiny from the FBI. But the recent visit appeared to place this group on the leading edge of the Trump administration’s use of law enforcement against what many civil liberties advocates say are constitutionally protected acts of protest and free speech.

After last year’s killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, President Donald Trump issued a national security memorandum titled “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence.” The memo asserted that the killing and other attacks, such as the attempted assassination of Trump and the slaying of a health care executive in 2024, were “a culmination of sophisticated, organized campaigns” designed to intimidate and influence public policy. It linked these acts with “anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity,” among other views, and directed the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces to “coordinate and supervise a comprehensive national strategy to investigate, prosecute, and disrupt entities and individuals engaged in acts of political violence and intimidation designed to suppress lawful political activity or obstruct the rule of law.”

EDIT

t was January when a former member, who is no longer active with the group and lives in upstate New York, got a phone call from a woman identifying herself as an FBI agent. The man, who asked not to be identified to avoid getting doxed, thought she was a scammer. She said she was outside his home, he said, but gave an address where he no longer lived. A couple of weeks later the man was having breakfast when the woman arrived at his current address with another man. She showed her badge, identified herself as an FBI agent and said he wasn’t in trouble but that she wanted to talk about Extinction Rebellion. The man said he couldn’t help them and immediately called a lawyer, Ron Kuby, who has represented Extinction Rebellion members.

EDIT

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/08032026/environmental-activists-fbi-visits/