President Donald Trump's administration is trying to expand the definition of domestic terrorism as it aims to crack down on a wave of attacks in which Teslas have been shot and set on fire, apparently to protest CEO Elon Musk's powerful but murky role in cutting the US government.
Critics of Musk and President Donald Trump will see irony in use of the term "domestic terrorism" to describe people attacking electric vehicles after Trump issued mass pardons for more than 1,000 January 6 rioters who stormed the Capitol and tried to disrupt confirmation of the 2020 election results.
Under President Joe Biden's Attorney General Merrick Garland, the Department of Justice announced a new national strategy to combat domestic terrorism after January 6 as well as a wave of deadly mass shootings by White nationalists and right-wing extremists.
The term will apparently take a new meaning under Trump as the FBI and law enforcement agencies will now focus on anti-corporate vandals targeting vehicles.
Usually, the word "terrorism" is not used to describe vandalism, Daniel Byman, director of the Warfare, Irregular Threats, and Terrorism Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told me.
"There is a lot of property destruction, at times for political reasons, and this is almost never labeled as terrorism. These attacks seemed designed not to harm people," Byman said.
'Nothing short of domestic terrorism'
Attorney General Pam Bondi described Tesla desecration as "nothing short of domestic terrorism" in a statement released Tuesday. She promised to "impose severe consequences on those involved in these attacks, including those operating behind the scenes to coordinate and fund these crimes."
Bondi did not elaborate on who might be behind the scenes coordinating the vandalism, so it's appropriate to wonder if there's any evidence of any such coordination.
Vandals across the country
There have been documented incidents of Tesla vandalism in the Pacific Northwest, the Northeast and around the country, not to mention countless posts on social media.
Federal prosecutors charged a woman in Colorado with using incendiary devices — Molotov cocktails — to target Tesla vehicles, and federal agents in South Carolina made an arrest in connection with a fire set at a Tesla charging station, according to the Associated Press, which reported that an affidavit mentioned the man's opposition to Musk's Department of Government Efficiency.
Bondi released her statement after an incident in Las Vegas where Teslas at a repair center were shot and set on fire in what Assistant Sheriff Dori Koren of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department described as a "targeted attack on a Tesla facility." He said officers have increased their presence at Tesla locations.
CNN's Josh Campbell reported that the FBI's joint terrorism task force is investigating the Las Vegas attack.
What is the definition of domestic terrorism?
Domestic terrorism is not a specific crime with which a person can be charged, but it is defined in US law as acts that are dangerous to human life, violate US or state law, and are intended
- to intimidate or coerce a civilian population;
- to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion;
- to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination, or kidnapping
- Allegations, without evidence, of a conspiracy
Trump agreed that the vandalism is terrorism during an interview on Fox News Tuesday and tried, without evidence, to seed a conspiracy theory that the attacks are part of a coordinated and funded campaign.
"I think that you will find out that they're paid by people who are very highly political on the left," Trump said, without naming who might be behind such a campaign or what evidence has led him to that conclusion.
Musk also sees coordination in the violence, although he also did not offer specific allegations.
"I think there are larger forces at work as well," Musk said in his own Fox News interview on Tuesday. "I mean, I don't know who's funding it and who's coordinating it because this is this is crazy."
There's currently no indication of any kind of coordinated campaign, but the attacks, which range from the slashing of tires to the slinging of Molotov cocktails, are clearly illegal, and probably counterproductive if their aim is to protest what Musk is undertaking with his Blitzkrieg effort to downsize the federal government.
Terrorists vs. hostages
John Miller, CNN's chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst, told me that prosecutors should be looking at allegations of domestic terrorism clinically rather than through a political lens.
"If firing bullets into the windows of Tesla dealerships or throwing Molotov cocktails inside cars in the lot is being done for political reasons, that would seem to fall into the category of domestic terrorism," he told me by email.
Suspects would be charged, as they were for January 6 rioters, under standard federal or local statutes.
Some people involved with January 6, like those belonging to the Oath Keepers and Proud Boys groups were charged, tried and convicted by juries with more serious crimes, including seditious conspiracy, before Trump commuted their sentences.
Despite the verdict of the justice system, Trump viewed January 6 rioters as "hostages." Now back in the White House, he wants to put anyone coordinating an attack on a Tesla dealership in prison.
"Once politics enters the picture of what is or is not domestic terrorism, this is where we start to see imbalance," Miller said.
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