cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/26743463
The FBI is moving to criminalize groups like Habitat for Humanity for receiving grants from the Environmental Protection Agency under the Biden administration.
Citibank revealed in a court filing Wednesday that it was told to freeze the groups’ bank accounts at the FBI’s request. The reason? The FBI alleges that the groups are involved in “possible criminal violations,” including “conspiracy to defraud the United States.”
“The FBI has told Citibank that recipients of EPA climate grants are being considered as potentially liable for fraud. That is, the Trump administration wants to criminalize work on climate science and impacts,” the @capitolhunters account wrote Wednesday on X. “An incoming administration not only cancels federal grants but declares recipients as criminals. All these grantees applied under government calls FOR ENVIRONMENTAL WORK, were reviewed and accepted. Trump wants to jail them.“
The Appalachian Community Capital Corporation, the Coalition for Green Capital, and the DC Green Bank are just some of the nonprofits being targeted.
“This is not fraud. This is targeted harassment,” @capitolhunters continued. “The idea of criminalizing community climate work wouldn’t have originated at the FBI—it likely comes from EPA director Lee Zeldin, who today cut all EPA’s environmental justice offices, which try to reduce pollution in poor and minority communities.”
Zeldin’s order eliminates 10 EPA regional offices as well as the headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Keep in mind that one of the purposes of these actions is to force these organizations to waste millions of dollars and months of time defending themselves. That’s money and time not being spent actually doing the job they’re supposed to be doing, and therefore giving a false impression that the entire organization is just a waste of taxpayer money since they’re not actually accomplishing anything and keep being subject to criminal investigations.
Basically, if the optics of shutting down an agency are too bad even for Trump’s standards, he’ll just drown them in litigation and render them ineffective instead. The end result is pretty much the same for all practical purposes.
Hard to even defend yourself against bullshit allegations when your bank account is frozen at the request of the Fascist Bureau of Intimidation.