Trump’s DHS Targeting Activist Americans as “Antifa” Foreign Agents

According to a DHS intelligence officials are targeting American activists it considers “Antifa” and attempting to tie them to foreign powers.

DC correspondent Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) reports:

"Homeland Security is Quietly Tying Antifa to Foreign Powers." An intelligence report obtained exclusively by The Nation mentions several Americans, including a left-wing podcast host.

While the law generally prohibits intelligence agencies from spying on U.S. residents, many of those protections do not apply if the individual is believed to be acting as an agent of a foreign power. By linking American activists to a foreign power, DHS is attempting to circumvent guaranteed legal protections.

“They targeted Americans like they’re Al-Qaeda” a former senior DHS intelligence officer with knowledge of the operations told The Nation, comparing the operation to the illegal surveillance of activists during the civil rights era. “They essentially were violating people’s rights like this was the 60’s… the type of shit the Church and Pike committee[s] had to address.”

President Trump keeps pointing to Antifa in an effort to delegitimize the powerful protests roiling American cities—when in fact, Klippenstein’s previous report on a leaked internal FBI situation report shows Antifa's presence is so negligible, his own FBI has trouble finding evidence of their involvement.

ABOUT: Ken Klippenstein is The Nation's DC correspondent. His reporting focuses on the machinations of the American national security state and documents under-the-radar politics and policies enacted by the Trump administration. Klippenstein was previously senior investigative reporter for The Young Turks and a frequent contributor to The Daily Beast. His reporting has been referenced by countless outlets and cited by Congress—including, in one instance, to grill FBI Director Christopher Wray.

Founded by abolitionists in 1865, The Nation has chronicled the breadth and depth of political and cultural life from the debut of the telegraph to the rise of Twitter, serving as a critical, independent, and progressive voice in American journalism.