Senators urge extremism researchers to hand over documents linked to right-wing hatred
A powerful United According to information obtained by WIRED, a state Senate committee has asked several academic research centers focused on political extremism to provide documents on federal watchlist programs, the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol, vaccine mandates, the 2020 election and Trump supporters.
The questions appear to be related to an ongoing investigation by Sen. Rand Paul, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, into the “weaponization of the Quiet Skies program,” which was the subject of a Sept. 30 hearing on Capitol Hill. While Paul’s investigation was hailed by Muslim-American organizations as a long-overdue investigation into flawed federal surveillance, it appears to be a broader effort to target academic researchers on extremism, which could undercut research on far-right radicalization.
At least three academic research centers focused on extremism have received requests for documents from the Senate committee in the past two months. A copy of a committee letter reviewed by WIRED asks the university that received it to turn over records of all communications, reports, memos or data exchanged with federal employees from Jan. 1, 2020, to Feb. 1, 2025, and any records related to the Quiet Skies and No-Fly Lists page of the FBI’s terrorist database. The university was also ordered to identify all employees who have federal security clearances, sources of federal financial aid, and internal procedures.
Critically, sources tell WIRED, the Senate committee has asked investigative agencies to release all internal and external emails related to a massive list of more than 300 query terms that include “Musk’s compulsions,” “origin of Covid-19,” “Trump supporters or the Trump campaign,” “Capitol Police.” FBI Director Cash Patel, US Attorney General Pam Bundy, Acting District of Columbia Attorney Ed Martin and former Acting US Attorney for the District of Columbia (now US Pardon Attorney), Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, “Trump Voter”, “Red Hat”, “Sedition”, “Seditious Groups and Extremists, Conspiracy Hunters, and Extremists, Sedition Hunters” and Extremists. Enrique Tario, Stuart Rhodes, Three Percent and others.
People familiar with the committee’s investigation see Paul’s wide-ranging questions as a targeted effort to quiet or discourage academic research into far-right groups, ideologies or individuals.
Of the more than 300 subject questions listed in the Senate letter, researchers say only two terms — “anti-fascist” and “black lives matter” — appear to align with left-wing movements, ideologies or possible extremist groups. Earlier this month, the State Department formally designated four anti-fascist groups in Germany, Greece, and Italy as foreign terrorist organizations, raising concerns about the crackdown on U.S. dissidents previously outlined in National Security Presidential Memo-7 and the Presidential Executive Order, both of which targeted anti-fascist beliefs, opposition to Christianity and criticism of orthodoxy, and criticism of mysticism and immigrationism. as potential indicators of terrorism.
