Trump Made Political Beliefs Terrorism Indicators, Then Agents Obtained Union Financial Records
Chapter 1 — A Federal Agent Wore a Recorder Into a Church Gym
Chapter 2 — Trump Wrote Beliefs Into the Instructions, Then Asked for Names
Chapter 3 — Officials Announced Arrests Before Courts Ruled
Chapter 4 — Lawful Authority Does Not Answer How It Was Used
1 · A Federal Agent Wore a Recorder Into a Church Gym
1.1 — The Agent, the Recorder and Trump's Directive
1.2 — The Investigation Reached Union Financial Records
An undercover federal agent recorded a training session in the gym of University Baptist Church on May 28, 2026. Homeland Security had opened the investigation by invoking a directive Trump signed, one that describes violent actors partly by their political and religious beliefs. Prosecutors said the event was not church-sponsored and described the group's physical training as including obstruction during arrests. Trump signed the directive and asked for funders' names himself; the arrest publicity came from his officials.
Read the full chapter — all the detail, fully footnoted →
Homeland Security Investigations opened Project Whipple Shield on February 11, 2026, in a report that invokes Trump's directive. Its reports document receiving SEIU wire-transfer records. A separate summons dated March 9, 2026, demanded more than three years of records involving CWA, other union accounts and the Sunrise Movement. The preliminary analysis of the SEIU records listed categories such as dues and strike payments, not findings that any payment financed a crime.
Read the full chapter — all the detail, fully footnoted →
2 · Trump Wrote Beliefs Into the Instructions, Then Asked for Names
2.1 — What the Directive Tells Investigators to Look For
2.2 — He Asked for Funders' Names
2.3 — The Directive Became an Office and a Strategy
Trump's directive describes violent conduct through beliefs including anti-capitalism and anti-Christianity. It orders guidance on recurring motivations to help identify potential violence, and it points investigators at funders. Those instructions give investigators criteria for whom to examine, before a criminal case reaches a court.
Common threads animating this violent conduct include anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism, and anti-Christianity; support for the overthrow of the United States Government; extremism on migration, race, and gender; and hostility towards those who hold traditional American views on family, religion, and morality.
Read the full chapter — all the detail, fully footnoted →
Trump asked for funders' names to give to his FBI director and attorney general. Trump also invited information about Antifa's organization and funding even when participants were unsure. When a questioner named Roy Singham, Trump said he did not know the name and asked Bondi to look into it. At the same roundtable he called for prosecutions after a participant said he knew a flag burner's identity, and asked Justice officials to examine a proposed fee waiver for an anti-Trump rally; the next day he declared funders of violence equally guilty.
Do you know the name of any of the funders? Do you know the names? Because if you do, I'd like you to give them to Kash or Pam.
Read the full chapter — all the detail, fully footnoted →
The FBI built a center to carry out NSPM-7, with personnel from ten agencies. TPM reported that IRS agents and analysts were detailed to it. In May 2026, Trump's counterterrorism strategy made violent left-wing extremists a major threat category and ordered agencies to map violent groups' memberships and international ties.
3 · Officials Announced Arrests Before Courts Ruled
3.1 — Bondi Broke a Sealing Order to Announce Arrests
3.2 — A Felony Sandwich Case Ended in Acquittal
Bondi announced sixteen Minnesota arrests while cases were sealed. A magistrate judge found that her post violated the sealing order and exposed a defendant to a risk of doxxing. Another judge nevertheless refused a gag order, finding that careful jury selection could protect a fair trial. In a separate case, a jury convicted Judge Hannah Dugan of obstruction while acquitting her of concealment.
Read the full chapter — all the detail, fully footnoted →
Sean Dunn faced charges for throwing a sandwich at a federal officer. His lawyers alleged a filmed nighttime raid despite his offer to surrender, and publication of the video by the White House. They said local charges had been declined and a grand jury had rejected the felony indictment before prosecutors pursued a misdemeanor. The court never decided their publicity allegations; a jury later acquitted him of the misdemeanor.
Read the full chapter — all the detail, fully footnoted →
4 · Lawful Authority Does Not Answer How It Was Used
4.1 — The Defense: Investigating Violence With Lawful Powers
4.2 — The Pattern and the Case for Impeachment
Presidents can set enforcement priorities, and prosecutors have broad discretion. Trump's directives address violence, include legal limits and promise not to target mere disagreement. Those powers do not answer why political and religious identity should guide an investigation, or excuse arrest publicity that violated a court order.
Read the full chapter — all the detail, fully footnoted →
The impeachment issue is abuse of presidential power: Trump's own investigative instructions and the system built to carry them out. He signed the directive and asked for funders' names, and his government collected union finances and recorded a church gym session.
Read the full chapter — all the detail, fully footnoted →
Full Source Index
Primary Sources
- [1]
- [3]
- [4]
- [5]
- [6]
- [7]
- [8]
- [9]
- [10]
- [11]
- [12]
- [13]
- [14]
- [15]
- [16]
- [18]
- [19]
- [20]
- [23]
- [24]
- [25]
- [26]
- [27]
- [29]
- [30]
- [31]
- [32]
- [33]
- [34]
- [35]
- [36]
- [37]
- [38]
- [39]
- [40]
- [41]
- [42]
- [43]
- [44]
- [45]
- [46]
- [47]
- [48]
- [49]
- [50]
- [51]
- [52]
- [53]
- [54]
Secondary Sources
- [2]
- [17]
- [21]Audacy / 1010 WINS (New York), "'GET READY': DOJ filing charges against Hochul, James, DMV chief over immigration enforcement, Pam Bondi says" (Feb. 12, 2025) · reliable secondary (spoken statement; attributed)
- [22]CBS6 Albany (WRGB), report carrying CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig's on-air account of the news conference (Feb. 12, 2025) · reliable secondary (attributed)
- [28]