DOJ: No "Urgency" To Release NSPM-7 Suspect Entity List

Following President Donald Trump's issuance of National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7), Attorney General Pam Bondi ordered the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to “compile a list of groups or entities engaging in acts that may constitute domestic terrorism.” She ordered the FBI to complete this list within 30 days of her memo.

After that deadline passed, HardPressed submitted a FOIA request to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) seeking the list and then requested expedited processing on January 14.

In response today, DOJ Office of Information Policy Chief Andrew D. Fiorillo wrote that he determined HardPressed's "request for expedited processing... should be denied. This Office cannot identify a particular urgency to inform the public about an actual or alleged federal government activity beyond the public’s right to know about government activities generally."

Despite the serious nature of domestic terrorism assessments, the DOJ has determined there is no urgency to inform the public concerning whom Trump's FBI has placed on this list.

The Guardian has previously reported the existence of FBI NSPM-7-linked investigations across the country involving local FBI Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTF). Many civil rights experts, including the ACLU and The Brennan Center argue that NSPM-7 is designed to chill speech and advocacy. That assessment is coupled with the hard historical facts of FBI subversion and investigation of first amendment activity from COINTELPRO to the International Solidarity Movement in the early aughts.