<\/p>\n
Federal Bureau of Investigation<\/span> agents, at least one of whom works on counterterrorism, went to the home of a former member of a climate activism group for questioning last week, potentially signaling a new escalation in the Trump administration\u2019s promise to criminalize nonprofits and activist groups as domestic terrorists.\u00a0<\/p>\n Two FBI agents, one from New York\u2019s Joint Terrorism Task Force, told a former member of Extinction Rebellion NYC they wanted to ask him about the group at his home upstate on Friday, an attorney for the group told The Intercept. The visit followed a prior attempt to reach him at his old address.<\/p>\n The FBI\u2019s apparent probe of Extinction Rebellion NYC comes as the Justice Department ramps up its surveillance of activists protesting immigration enforcement and the Trump administration creates secret lists of domestic enemies<\/a> under Trump\u2019s National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, or NSPM-7.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI believe this to be a significant escalation of the criminal legal system against XR and find it very troubling,\u201d said Ron Kuby, the Extinction Rebellion attorney. \u201cThis is usually the way we find out an actual investigation is underway and is often followed by other visits and other actions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The former Extinction Rebellion member, who asked to remain anonymous out of fear for his safety, said that the visit came after a phone call in January from a special agent that he assumed was a scam.<\/p>\n \u201cI was skeptical the phone call was really from the FBI, but after I declined to speak with the agent, she said that she was standing outside my door,\u201d he said. She was actually at the activist\u2019s former address, which he said made him additionally dubious. But last week, when the agents showed up at his current address, he said he saw the agent\u2019s business card through his door.<\/p>\n Kuby confirmed that the agent\u2019s business card information corresponded to a current member of the FBI\u2019s New York Joint Terrorism Task Force. A text message from the agent, reviewed by The Intercept, shows she identified herself and stated that she was at the former member\u2019s house to question him about Extinction Rebellion. Her name, title, and phone number match a known special agent on the task force, according to court records.<\/p>\n Reached by The Intercept, a public affairs officer for the New York FBI field office said, \u201cPer longstanding DOJ policy, we cannot confirm or deny the existence or nonexistence of any investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n Extinction Rebellion NYC is a chapter of a loose international climate justice movement that does highly public direct actions, like an April Earth Day spray-painting<\/a> over the presidential seal inside Trump Tower in Manhattan. Kuby said none of the group\u2019s actions are violent or rise above the level of misdemeanors, and would not typically be of interest to federal counterterrorism investigators.<\/p>\n The former member said he had not been involved in any Extinction Rebellion actions in two years and hadn\u2019t participated in anything that he thought would send the FBI to his door.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey repeatedly pursued this member and traveled hundreds of miles \u2013 this suggests a real investigative effort.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n \u201cAll of our actions are incredibly public,\u201d he said. He recalled that the agent said she had some questions about Extinction Rebellion NYC, and that he wasn\u2019t in any trouble, before the activist declined to speak and closed his door.<\/p>\n Why the FBI\u2019s counterterrorism task force would investigate Extinction Rebellion is unknown, Kuby said.<\/p>\n \u201cOften, the FBI starts with former members of a group, or less central people, to begin investigations,\u201d Kuby said. \u201cThe fact that they repeatedly pursued this member, and traveled hundreds of miles from his old address in NYC \u2013 this suggests a real investigative effort.\u201d<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s September presidential memorandum<\/a>, dubbed NSPM-7, called for the National Joint Terrorism Task Force and its local offices to investigate a broad spectrum of progressive groups and donors for \u201canti-fascism\u201d beliefs.\u00a0<\/p>\n A November FBI internal report obtained by The Guardian<\/a> revealed that there were multiple active FBI investigations related to NSPM-7 in 27 locations, including New York, where the agent investigating Extinction Rebellion works. Trump\u2019s directive instructed Joint Terrorism Task Forces to proactively investigate groups and activists with vague language that civil liberty watchdogs say<\/a> could easily criminalize protected speech and protest.<\/p>\n FBI agents also visited several activists affiliated with Extinction Rebellion and other climate groups in the Boston area last March, according to a local news report<\/a>. The reasons for those visits remain unclear, and the activists involved said nothing came of them. The FBI\u2019s Boston Division declined to comment to the press at the time.<\/p>\n After Extinction Rebellion NYC members protested New York Democratic Rep. Tom Suozzi\u2019s town hall at a Long Island synagogue last month, objecting to his vote to increase ICE funding, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Harmeet Dhillon posted on X<\/a> that she would be investigating the protest to see \u201cwhether federal law has been broken.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n\n