Attorney General Pam Bondi for the first time acknowledged the existence of a secret list of domestic terrorist organizations during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Wednesday.
“I know antifa is part of that,” Bondi said under questioning about the list from Rep. Mary Gay Scanlon, D-Pa., the ranking member of the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Constitution and Limited Government. Bondi refused to offer any further details about the “domestic terrorist organization” database being compiled under President Donald Trump’s National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, or NSPM-7.
“The goal was to get her — even by denying that she would produce it — to acknowledge that it existed and then raise the alarm,” Scanlon told The Intercept.
The Justice Department had previously refused to acknowledge the list to The Intercept, despite being asked scores of questions about it over a period of months.
NSPM-7, which conflates constitutionally protected speech and political activism with “domestic terrorism” — a term that has no basis in U.S. law – specifically targets those that espouse what the administration defines as anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, anti-Christianity, antifascism, and radical gender ideologies, as well as those with “hostility toward those who hold traditional American views.”
An implementation memo Bondi issued in December directed the FBI to “compile a list of groups or entities engaged in acts that may constitute domestic terrorism.” The initial report was to be submitted to Bondi on January 3 with regular updates issued every 30 days.
A November FBI internal report obtained by The Guardian revealed that there were multiple active FBI investigations related to NSPM-7 in 27 locations. The Intercept revealed on Thursday that the FBI appears to be investigating Extinction Rebellion NYC, a climate activism group, in an inquiry that could potentially be related to NSPM-7.
Bondi’s revelation that she has a working domestic terrorist list came during four hours of back-and-forth with lawmakers that mostly focused on the recently released Justice Department files related to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. When repeatedly asked if she would commit to providing the House Judiciary Committee with the NSPM-7 list, Bondi snapped at Scanlon: “I’m not going to commit to anything to you because you won’t let me answer questions.”
After Scanlon clarified that this meant Bondi now had a “secret list of people or groups that you are accusing of domestic terrorism, but you won’t share it with Congress,” Scanlon noted that such secrecy precluded Americans from challenging their inclusion on the list. Bondi refused to address the issue and instead insulted Scanlon.
Asked about the NSPM-7 list, the FBI told The Intercept that it had “no comment.” Justice Department spokesperson Natalie Baldassarre failed to respond to questions about the size of the list or the persons or groups on it.
For months, the White House and Justice Department have continually failed to answer a troubling question from The Intercept regarding NSPM-7: Are Americans that the federal government deems to be members of domestic terrorist organizations subject to extrajudicial killings like those it claims are members of designated terrorist organizations who are targeted in boat strikes in the Caribbean Sea and Pacific Ocean?