Free Press Releases 'Enemies of the State,' Exposing the Trump Administration Blueprint to Chill and Criminalize Dissent
Image by Julia Sorrenti and Maria Nunes of Neta Collab
Groundbreaking report examines how the administration is using NSPM-7 to crack down on all forms of political opposition during the midterms and beyond
WASHINGTON — On Tuesday, Free Press released Enemies of the State: NSPM-7 and the Trump Plan to Crush Dissent, the first-ever comprehensive analysis of the Trump administration’s scheme to weaponize law enforcement against individuals and organizations that speak out against the president.
The report, co-authored by Shilpa Jindia and Nora Benavidez, tracks the coordinated federal agency crackdown since Trump issued National Security Presidential Memo Seven (NSPM-7). This draconian framework enables agencies such as the Justice Department, FBI and Homeland Security to surveil, investigate and prosecute people for engaging in constitutionally protected activities — including protesting, leafleting about basic rights, protecting free and fair elections and texting the whereabouts of immigration officials.
Enemies of the State also advances a series of remedies that would allow lawmakers and civil society to build a bulwark against this unconstitutional White House crackdown.
“The NSPM-7 framework is the latest escalation of this administration’s censorial campaign to stamp out opposition,” reads the report. “But this blueprint isn’t merely a set of disparate threats or one-off attacks like some of the administration’s often unconstitutional attempts to whittle away at free speech and dissent.”
In the report, Jindia and Benavidez identify three troubling hallmarks of the NSPM-7 crackdown:
- The broad application of enforcement targeting commonplace activities;
- Infliction of the most severe penalties; and
- A limitless mandate for enforcement with no guidelines or guardrails.
“The NSPM-7 blueprint enables efficient coordination across federal agencies to disrupt our democracy and go after the greatest number of people through surveillance, investigation and prosecution,” said Free Press Policy Counsel Jindia. “The aim is to levy the heaviest penalties across agencies to achieve the harshest sentences. While the methods, severity and application of the blueprint are explicit, the framework sets no standards for application — whether physical, geographic, thematic or constitutional. As a result, nothing and no one is off the table for NSPM-7 to sweep up and target.”
“The midterm elections are at our doorstep; the president is eagerly pursuing election-fraud narratives, telling voters he will pay them off if they vote for Republicans — and leveraging his executive power to sway election results if he can,” said Free Press Senior Counsel Benavidez. “Already Homeland Security officials have investigated more than 150 nonprofit organizations under the guise of ‘election integrity.’ It’s by no means outside the realm of possibility that NSPM-7 becomes the vehicle to shut down civic engagement and political expression in the weeks and months to come.”
Read Enemies of the State at: www.freepress.net/nspm-7-enemies-of-the-state-attacks-on-dissent