Grand Theft America / Receipt power-2026-06-09-075
The Justice Department indicts Cop City protesters under its antifa initiative
The Department of Justice indicted Katie Marie Kloth and Tyler John Norman over a 2022 protest against the Cop City police training centre outside Atlanta, and said in its press release that the action was part of the National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 initiative.
What happened
The Guardian reported the indictment on 26 June 2026 and dates it only as 'earlier this month'; CBS News reports that a federal grand jury returned the indictment on 9 June 2026, which is the date used here. The two were among three people whose second state indictment a Georgia judge, Robert E Flournoy, dismissed on 22 June 2026, writing that their due process rights had been violated by the inordinate delay between the alleged crimes and the indictment. NSPM-7 was released by Trump in September and is aimed at combating violent and terroristic activities under the umbrella of self-described anti-fascism; the same week, on 22 September, Trump issued an executive order labelling antifa a domestic terrorist organisation.
Why it matters
A federal indictment follows two state failures to convict the same people over the same acts, so defendants whose state indictments were dismissed are charged again by the federal government under a memorandum written around a label rather than an organisation. Arun Kundnani, an author on political violence, said that characterising antifa as a terrorist organisation enables all kinds of criminal prosecution.
Receipt details
- Phase 2
- Turn law enforcement inward
- Create new extremist classifications
