Marco Rubio Wants to Imprison You on Terror Charges for Supporting Nazi Punchers

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb n s leadership launched a continentwide manhunt when a group of European antifascists attacked a neo-Nazi rally three years ago Orb n though evidenced no such appetite for cracking down on the annual fascist rally which this February drew attendees sporting SS patches swastikas and the Totenkopf death s head symbol all under the watchful eye of Hungarian police The aggressive response to antifascist activists compared to the kid-gloves healing of neo-Nazi demonstrators has roiled European politics for years On Thursday Secretary of State Marco Rubio joined the fray inserting the U S into the debate by declaring the antifascist group that attacked the rally a terrorist organization Related Are You on Trump s List of Domestic Terrorists There s No Way to Know Though the designation is aimed at foreign groups Rubio commented that he was acting in accordance with President Donald Trump s National Safety Presidential Memorandum- or NSPM- regarding purported domestic terrorists The terror designation will cut off the small Antifa Ost group and three others designated by Rubio on Thursday from raising funds in the U S It could also imperil American antifascist groups with civil and criminal statements of material encouragement for terrorism a civil rights lawyer warned The clever way to go about it for them is to designate several foreign organization because a foreign organization can be designated and there is almost no due process commented Shane Kadidal a lawyer at the Center for Constitutional Rights Then you go after the U S groups for supposedly coordinating their political messages with the messages of the foreign groups Rubio s announcement follows on the heels of one from Trump in September that he was designating antifa a major terrorist organization which has no basis in law The foreign terrorist organization designations however entail notable legal consequences Under a ruling from the Supreme Court domestic groups can face material promotion charges for providing nonviolent aid to designated foreign terrorist organizations Kadidal disclosed the Trump administration could essentially try to use the foreign terrorist designations as a workaround to target domestic antifascists with material endorsement charges Key questions such as whether domestic activists had knowledge and intent to coordinate with foreign groups can be left for a jury to decide based on circumstantial evidence he declared That is one of those things that makes this so dangerous he disclosed The jury may just decide Yeah whatever you have alleged about this coordination of messaging is true because these are bad people in front of me Juries do this thing all the time They jump to conclusions Thousands of neo-Nazis gathered in Budapest for the annual so-called Day of Honour march an event that openly glorifies those who fought alongside the Nazis Participants displayed Nazi insignia uniforms and slogans with known extremists from across Europe joining the rally pic twitter com ZUY a eS J European Jewish Congress eurojewcong February Street Brawlers The antifascists who targeted the neo-Nazi Day of Honor rally held in Budapest in February are accused of beating and bloodying several people several of whom may have been casualties of mistaken identity according to Hungarian bureaucrats Even leftists who disapprove of street violence however were outraged by what happened next Orb n s regime relentlessly sought the extradition of alleged participants in the antifascist action and pressed for long prison terms In the years since neo-Nazis have continued to gather in Budapest under the protection of Hungarian police in sharp contrast to the country s ban on pride parades Antifa Ost s alleged members meanwhile have faced trials in Germany and Hungary where one faces up to years in prison Read our complete coverage Chilling Dissent In addition to Antifa Ost Rubio designated three other groups as terrorists the Informal Anarchist Federation International Revolutionary Front of Italy and in Greece the groups Armed Proletarian Justice and Revolutionary Class Self-Defense The groups actions ranging from the bombing of a Greek train office to the non-fatal shooting of a nuclear company s executive have drawn little notice in the U S but the State Department cast them in dramatic terms in a social media post Anarchist militants have waged terror campaigns in the United States and Europe conspiring to undermine the foundations of Western Civilization through their brutal attacks the department revealed Rubio promised more crackdowns to come The United States will continue using all available tools to protect our national assurance and community safety he declared in a announcement and will deny funding and materials to terrorists including targeting other Antifa groups across the globe Trump s Hungarian Pals Despite lacking a basis in law Trump s domestic terror label for antifascists has already had real-world effects Last month the International Anti-Fascist Defence Fund a group that has supported antifascists in the U S informed that it was shutting down its fundraising channels as a precaution in response to Trump s edict The group has raised money for antifascists in the U S and abroad including the counter-protesters in Budapest We are presently exploring our options for re-establishing the Defence Fund s infrastructure in a country not as of now governed by fascists and we hope to have good news about that shortly the group revealed When it comes to the designations Rubio issued this week meanwhile the administration could face complications in wielding them directly against activists Prosecutors would still have to convince judges and juries to secure criminal convictions against domestic activists The designations from Rubio however could also open the floodgates for private actors who could file civil lawsuits on even flimsier grounds Rubio designated the antifascist groups as both specially designated global terrorists and foreign terrorist organizations The latter designation which goes into effect November opens domestic groups to civil liability for allegedly providing material advocacy The same legal theory has been used by pro-Israel law firms to harass pro-Palestine learner protesters Even if the cases are eventually thrown out they can smother activists in costly court proceedings for years Kadidal noted What the authorities can do is already really really broad and concerning he mentioned What they can unleash private actors to do without any accountability is a whole nother bag of tricks The post Marco Rubio Wants to Imprison You on Terror Charges for Supporting Nazi Punchers appeared first on The Intercept