AG Bondi directed FBI to target Americans expressing opposition to immigration enforcement, LGBTQ+ rights, anti-capitalism

On December 4, 2025, Attorney General Pam Bondi issued a Justice Department memo operationalizing President Trump's National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7), signed in September 2025. The memo directs the Federal Bureau of Investigation to identify and compile a list of Americans and groups engaged in acts constituting "domestic terrorism"—a term Bondi's memo redefines to encompass constitutionally protected political speech and association.

According to the leaked memo, the categories of conduct now classified as "domestic terrorism" include: opposition to immigration enforcement and law enforcement generally; advocacy for mass migration and open borders; adherence to "radical gender ideology"; anti-Americanism; anti-capitalism; and anti-Christianity. These are not descriptions of criminal acts—they are political viewpoints protected by the First Amendment. The memo directs the FBI to establish cash reward systems for informants reporting on these activities, enhance its public tipline capabilities, and conduct retroactive investigations of conduct from the past five years, creating infrastructure to identify and prosecute individuals based on their lawful political expression.

The memo represents an inversion of the Justice Department's constitutional role. Rather than investigating criminal conduct regardless of the perpetrator's political views, it uses law enforcement apparatus to target Americans whose political views the administration opposes. The establishment of informant rewards and retroactive investigation of five years of past conduct creates incentives for political denunciation and expands prosecutorial discretion based on ideology rather than law. By redefining political opposition as "terrorism," the memo bypasses the constitutional protections that normally shield dissent from government retaliation. This is not counterterrorism policy; it is the criminalization of political viewpoint masquerading as national security.