FBI Director Kash Patel vowed during a White House roundtable event on Wednesday that the bureau, along with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, the Justice Department, and the Department of Homeland Security, will expose and dismantle the “domestic terrorist” networks funding left-wing violence around the country.“We are following the money. Money never lies. And that’s what it’s going to take to bring down this network of organized criminal thugs, gang bangers, and yes, domestic terrorists, because that’s what they are,” Patel said.
“We will not rest until we find every single seed, money, donor, organization, and funding mechanism that we have. And I want to echo the secretary’s comments on Scott Bessent, who’s allowing us to map out these networks through their financial criminal activities, which has been going on for decades,” he added.
“They will not be able to hide. They were able to hide and conspire with prior administrations, and we are exposing their corruption from within. And we will go to every single city in this country,” he vowed.
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President Donald Trump signed an executive order last month aimed at combating domestic terrorism and organized political violence.
The order directs federal agencies to focus on identifying and disrupting left-wing extremist groups and their financial backers, which the president described as “anarchists” seeking to undermine public safety.
“These are anarchists and agitators. Professional anarchists and agitators and they get hired by wealthy people,” Trump said at the time. “You wouldn’t know it. Have dinner with them, everything’s nice and then you find out they funded millions of dollars to these lunatics.”
Trump indicated that he knows some of the people who are allegedly funding the violence and chaos but did not elaborate.
Surrounded by Cabinet members and senior administration officials in the Oval Office, President Trump described the executive order as a measure designed to investigate, disrupt, and dismantle organized political violence and domestic terrorism at every level.
To dismantle left-wing terrorism. To dismantle Antifa. To dismantle the organizations that have been carrying out these acts of political violence and terrorism,” added Stephen Miller, White House Deputy Chief of Staff.
The executive order instructs the FBI’s National Joint Terrorism Task Force to pursue investigations and prosecutions against individuals and organizations involved in acts of political violence or intimidation.
“People and organizations have collected funds and put them out into the streets of America and organized violence across our country,” Patel noted last month during the signing.
The executive order followed a deadly attack at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Dallas, Texas, a day earlier. The Department of Homeland Security reported a 1,000% increase in assaults against ICE officers over the past year.
Vice President J.D. Vance told Fox News on Thursday that increasingly hostile rhetoric from the political left has been a major contributing factor.
“The Democrats and the media, because they so hate the idea of a real border, are engaging in the type of blood libel against ICE agents,” he said.
Trump indicated that left-wing billionaires George Soros and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman are among those funding groups like Antifa.
Also last month, a senior Justice Department official directed more than half a dozen U.S. attorneys’ offices to prepare plans for potential criminal investigations into the Open Society Foundations, the international nonprofit network financed by Soros.
According to The New York Times, the directive outlines possible charges including racketeering, arson, wire fraud, and providing material support to terrorism.
The move marks the latest indication that federal prosecutors are acting on President Donald Trump’s calls for a criminal probe into Soros and his affiliated organizations.
Trump sharpened his criticism of Soros after the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk in Utah.
