Republicans applauded President Trump for designating antifa as a terrorist organization, but some believe the designation was unnecessary.
Trump and Attorney General William Barr, along with national security adviser Robert O’Brien, have recently pointed to antifa as the root cause of the violence and massive property damage. Barr, on Saturday, said the Justice Department would be focused on “apprehending and charging the violent radical agitators who have hijacked peaceful protest and are engaged in violations of federal law.”
Former assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew McCarthy, who prosecuted Sheikh Omar Abdel-Rahman, the blind sheikh, for conspiracy in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, argues that naming antifa a terrorist organization would not be necessary. The Department of Justice already has all the prosecutorial powers it needs to prosecute antifa, a loose-knit group of anarchists, communists, and others who are increasingly inserting themselves into otherwise peaceful protests, McCarthy said.
“They should use RICO, and they should use the statute that I prosecuted the blind sheikh under, seditious conspiracy, which is conspiracy to levy war against the United States,” McCarthy told the Washington Examiner. “But RICO would also would work, and you don’t have to designate them.”
Sen. Jim Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican and member of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said a terrorist designation against antifa would give federal authorities broader leeway to examine its participants’ daily activities.
“It’s just a matter of trying to be able to get through the process and make sure all the T’s are crossed and I’s are dotted,” Landford said.
Similarly, Sen. Jim Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican, told the Washington Examiner the designation is “overdue.”
However, Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican , questioned if antifa’s loose organization structure would qualify the radical leftist group to be named a terrorist designation.
“There’s no doubt there’s terroristic behavior going on. Part of the problem with it is that these groups that we’re talking about, they don’t have a home office. They’re not a traditional group,” Rubio, interim chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told the Washington Examiner. “It’s a loosely affiliated group of individuals who would have some differences in ideology, but basically very similar tactics to the kinds of things that we’re seeing.”
The debate comes as Trump administration critics question whether antifa is being made a catch-all target, including legitimate protests over the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police and a series of other officer-involved lethal incidents that past several years.
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison said Monday he has seen “no evidence” that many protesters are members of antifa, as Trump has claimed.
“They’ve been confronted by some of the legitimate protesters,” said Ellison, a Democrat.
