Lawyers guild’s alleged ties to Antifa spark call for DOJ probe

FIRST ON FOX: A Texas Republican called on the Department of Justice on Friday to investigate the National Lawyers Guild, saying the prominent legal group’s activities go beyond defending rioters in court and may extend to supporting Antifa-affiliated violence.

Rep. Lance Gooden wrote in a letter first obtained by Fox News Digital to the DOJ that the National Lawyers Guild has “close ties with left-wing extremists and domestic terrorist organizations like Antifa.”

“The true degree of their involvement in organizing attacks within our country is unclear, but I am deeply concerned that the NLG and its continued support for Antifa extremists pose a direct physical threat to the lives of civilians and law enforcement officers,” Gooden wrote, also noting that he wanted the DOJ to probe the group’s financing.

A DOJ spokesperson confirmed it received Gooden’s letter but had no further comment. Fox News Digital has reached out to the National Lawyers Guild for comment. 

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Gooden’s request comes as the Trump administration has zeroed in on Antifa affiliates. President Donald Trump declared Antifa a “domestic terrorist organization” in September, saying the all-black-clad protesters who label themselves as Antifa members are fueling anti-law enforcement riots across the country and causing violence.

The FBI has described Antifa as a decentralized ideology, a feature that has led critics to say Antifa is not a precise label. The Congressional Research Service has said Antifa is a broad term and that its members have a variety of radical views closely aligned with anarchism, communism or socialism. The first group known to adopt the term Antifa was Rose City Antifa in Portland in 2007. On occasion, violent criminals have been cited in court as affiliating with Antifa.

FBI Director Kash Patel told Fox Business this week that “yes, Antifa exists” and that the bureau has launched investigations across the country into the funding and organizing efforts behind Antifa.

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Patel’s comments came right after the DOJ brought terrorism-related charges for the first time against defendants that it accused in an indictment of belonging to an “Antifa Cell.” The indictment described Antifa as a “militant enterprise made up of networks” and alleged the defendants engaged in a violent attack on ICE’s Prairieland Detention Center in Texas that left a police officer shot in the neck and wounded.

Gooden accused the National Lawyers Guild, which also gave legal support to defendants accused of rioting during Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, of actively campaigning “against measures aimed at maintaining peace and law and order.”

“This includes demanding the abolishment of prisons and opposing higher penalties for masked rioters who attack people for exercising their constitutional rights,” Gooden wrote.

Gooden also cited a social media post by independent reporter Andy Ngo, who shared a video of protesters outside an ICE facility in Portland that he said featured National Lawyers Guild members interspersed throughout the crowd.

Another video Ngo shared on Friday featured a National Lawyers Guild member encouraging bystanders to give her information about people who were just arrested.

“The NLG is an Antifa legal group that provides guidance to extremists to help them escape justice,” Ngo wrote.

The National Lawyers Guild, a longstanding organization with thousands of members, is a 501(c)(4) and its foundation a 501(c)(3), designations that both qualify for tax benefits, which Gooden said justified a federal probe.

The group self-identifies as progressive and recently said its donations are not used to fund Antifa because mere ideas cannot accept money.

“Antifa is short for antifascism. Antifascism is an idea and a form of resistance to the ever increasing authoritarianism in the United States,” the group wrote on Bluesky on Thursday. “It is not a national organization or nonprofit that takes donations.”

The group said antifascists are advocates for people “ICE agents disappear … off the streets.”

“Antifascists are the Stop Cop City protesters, defending their communities from the expansion of police training grounds,” it continued. “Antifascists are those that show up to protest the National Guard, invading their city.”

The National Lawyers Guild’s remarks get at the heart of an underlying free speech debate, as First Amendment advocates raise warnings about the Trump administration targeting people who verbally support Antifa or antifascism but remain peaceful.

Hina Shamsi of the American Civil Liberties Union said when Trump called Antifa a domestic terrorist organization that he was encroaching on people’s free speech rights.

“President Trump seems hellbent on targeting real or perceived political opponents based on their constitutionally protected beliefs and speech, and we should all be very clear that he is jeopardizing everyone’s First Amendment rights,” Shamsi said.