{"id":55198,"date":"2025-09-20T04:27:30","date_gmt":"2025-09-20T12:27:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/?p=55198"},"modified":"2025-09-20T04:27:30","modified_gmt":"2025-09-20T12:27:30","slug":"trump-threatens-codepink-with-rico-charges-after-public-confrontation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/20\/trump-threatens-codepink-with-rico-charges-after-public-confrontation\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Threatens CODEPINK with RICO Charges after Public Confrontation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reprinted from People’s Dispatch<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Activists from the anti-war group CODEPINK confronted US President Donald Trump and his cabinet at a restaurant in Washington, DC on September 9. The disruption made national headlines<\/a> and (evidently) sent the Trump administration into a frenzy.<\/p>\n

At the restaurant on September 9, peace activists got surprisingly close<\/a> to Trump and cabinet members including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, shouting \u201cFree DC, free Palestine, Trump is the Hitler of our time!\u201d Trump appeared to react with visible frustration as he gestured for his security to remove the protesters, saying \u201cGet them out of here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

CODEPINK peace activists confront Donald Trump at a restaurant in Washington, DC (Screenshot via CODEPINK\/Youtube)<\/p><\/div>\n

Trump has since issued direct threats against the activists who disrupted his dinner. In remarks<\/a> to press, Trump claimed one of the activists was a \u201cpaid agitator,\u201d and is looking into having US Attorney General Pam Bondi to look into bringing RICO charges against the protesters \u201cbecause they should be put in jail.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat they are doing to this country is really subversive,\u201d Trump said. RICO charges, or charges under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, were originally intended to combat organized crime. But in an unprecedented move, they have been deployed against 61 activists<\/a> who opposed the construction of a multi-million dollar police training facility in Atlanta, known as \u201cCop City\u201d by Georgia\u2019s Attorney General Chris Carr. After a legal battle of 2 years, the charges were finally dismissed a few days ago<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone who values free speech should be appalled at this attempt to criminalize it,\u201d Melissa Garriga, a spokesperson for CODEPINK, told Peoples Dispatch<\/i>. \u201cWe have to continue to hold those in power accountable for their actions, especially when they are openly supporting an ongoing genocide with our tax dollars.\u201d<\/p>\n

CODEPINK has been a leading force in staging direct confrontations with politicians in public spaces for decades, and since Israel began its genocide against Palestinians in Gaza in October of 2023, the organization has made sure to hold US politicians accountable for their support for Israel.<\/p>\n

An unbroken tradition of disrupting power<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cWe have never shied away from disrupting power regardless of which party is in office,\u201d said Garriga. CODEPINK began organizing<\/a> in the lead-up to the US invasion of Iraq, kicking off a 4-month, all-day protest vigil in front of the White House on November 17, 2002. CODEPINK members, composed of anti-war women activists, participated in numerous actions against the US war on Iraq, including denouncing then-president George W. Bush\u2019s \u201cnaked aggression\u201d by staging demonstrations spelling out the word \u201cPEACE\u201d with their naked bodies.<\/p>\n

CODEPINK has been organizing against war and for human rights ever since. The organization runs the website \u201cBought by Zionism\u201d<\/a>, which tracks pro-Israel lobbyist funding of US politicians. The organization has made a habit of direct confrontations with those politicians, financed by AIPAC and other pro-Israel groups.<\/p>\n

On February 7, 2024, CODEPINK activists confronted then-Florida Senator Marco Rubio about his support for Israel amid the killing of Palestinian children by Israeli forces, to which he responded<\/a> on video \u201cYeah, Hamas is responsible for killing all of those children.\u201d<\/p>\n

After Palestinian student activist Mahmoud Khalil was taken into ICE custody by the Trump administration, CODEPINK activists hounded down politicians on both sides of the aisle who had not called for his release. Medea Benjamin of CODEPINK pressed<\/a> New York representative Ritchie Torres on Capitol Hill, asking whether he believes \u201ca green card holder who committed no crime should be arrested.\u201d Torres replied, \u201cIf you are engaged in violent conduct that takes over a building on a college campus, that\u2019s not free speech.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a really critical moment for other organizations to stand in solidarity, loud and clear solidarity with organizations facing repression,\u201d Garriga said. \u201cNow\u2019s not the time for splitting hairs over smaller disagreements. If they come after one of us, they will come after us all. Even if you don\u2019t agree with every intricate stance of our organizations, it\u2019s time to demonstrate real solidarity, or else we will all lose.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reprinted from People’s Dispatch. Activists from the anti-war group CODEPINK confronted US President Donald Trump and his cabinet at a restaurant in Washington, DC on September 9. The disruption made national headlines and (evidently) sent the Trump administration into a frenzy. At the restaurant on September 9, peace activists got surprisingly close to Trump and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":678,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[1368],"class_list":["post-55198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"meta_box":{"disable_donate_message":"0","custom_donate_message":"","subtitle":"Trump threatens RICO charges after CODEPINK protest, escalating crackdown on dissent and free speech"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/678"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55198"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55198\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55203,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55198\/revisions\/55203"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55198"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.antiwar.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=55198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}