Trump administration now classifies Antifa and left-wing networks among ‘major’ terror groups

By Holmes Lybrand, CNN

(CNN) — The Trump administration has classified left-wing networks like Antifa among “three major types of terror groups” the US faces, according to a counter-terrorism plan released Thursday.

“In addition to cartels and Islamist terror groups,” the plan says, “our national (counter terrorism) activities will also prioritize the rapid identification and neutralization of violent secular political groups whose ideology is anti-American, radically pro-transgender, and anarchist.”

In recent months, as Trump administration officials have ramped up the rhetoric around investigating and prosecuting people who it says are part of groups like Antifa, they have struggled to answer basic questions about the organizations.

During a congressional hearing late last year, Michael Glasheen, operations director of the FBI’s National Security Branch, could not answer questions about Antifa’s group size, location or other details.

“Investigations are active,” Glasheen said after declaring Antifa as the “primary concern” of the FBI. The FBI official said the situation was “very fluid.”

The White House counterterrorism plan says the federal government will “use all the tools constitutionally available to us to map them at home, identify their membership, map their ties to international organizations like Antifa.”

The US has faced several violent attacks from individuals opposing the administration and its allies, including the recent attempted attack at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, the murder of right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk and several violent attacks on immigration facilities.

Organized terrorism from left-wing groups, however, is far more rare.

In July, a group of nearly a dozen people set off fireworks and spray-painted vehicles and buildings at a Department of Homeland Security facility in Texas before some from the group opened fire on a police officer and employees at the building.

The case was the first federal terrorism case in the Trump administration’s promised fight against left-wing groups.

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