Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent confirmed Thursday that a joint IRS-FBI investigation into the funding networks behind antifa has made “substantial progress.”
Mr. Bessent signaled that new IRS guidance on nonprofit tax filings will hold grant-making organizations legally responsible if their recipients engage in violent or rights-suppressing activity.
The Treasury Department began working with the FBI in October to investigate who is funding antifa, which President Trump has described as a “militant anarchist organization.” The regulatory move could expose major left-wing donor networks to federal scrutiny.
“We made substantial progress and I think in the weeks and months ahead we are going to have a lot to report … the IRS is now giving guidance on the Form 990, which nonprofits have to file, and we are going to encourage or demand that nonprofits know their grant recipients,” Mr. Bessent told reporters in the White House briefing room.
“So, if a grant recipient is violent, if they are suppressing people’s rights, then you are responsible for that,” he said. “And I think that’s a very good first step.”
The Treasury Department and the FBI launched their investigation into antifa following Mr. Trump’s September 2025 executive order on domestic terrorism, which was initiated by a series of high-profile events, including the assassination of prominent conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Along with the FBI-IRS joint probe, the deputy attorney general’s office has established a task force that investigates the funding of antifa-linked groups. U.S. attorney offices were also asked to appoint a domestic terrorism coordinator.
The executive order declared antifa a “militant anarchist organization” that seeks to overthrow the U.S. government, law enforcement, and the rule of law through violence and terrorism, and formally designates antifa a “domestic terrorist organization.”
The order also describes antifa’s activities as including armed standoffs with federal authorities, organized riots, violent assaults on ICE and other officers, doxxing and threats against political figures, and the recruitment and radicalization of young Americans for political violence.
It also highlights antifa’s alleged concealment of its operatives and funding sources, and coordination with allied groups to suppress lawful political activity.
Three days after the executive order, on Sept. 25, 2025, Mr. Trump issued a national security memorandum that tasked major federal agencies to “investigate, prosecute, and disrupt entities and individuals engaged in acts of political violence and intimidation” and to “disrupt financial networks that fund domestic terrorism and political violence.”
The order directs executive departments and agencies to “utilize all applicable authorities to investigate, disrupt and dismantle any and all illegal operations — especially those involving terrorist actions — conducted by antifa or any person claiming to act on behalf of antifa,” including investigatory and prosecutorial actions against those who fund such operations.
The memo and the antifa executive order targeted the tax-exempt status of foundations funding civil society groups. The memo instructed the IRS commissioner to ensure that no tax-exempt entities are directly or indirectly financing political violence or domestic terrorism.
