The Biden administration has weaponized taxpayer-funded anti-terrorism grants to \u201cdestroy\u201d conservatives, including Christians and \u201chighly reputable conservative organizations\u201d such as The Heritage Foundation, the Media Research Center contends in a new report.<\/p>\n

The report, titled \u201cExposed,\u201d says that a grant program run by the Department of Homeland Security, reorganized under President Joe Biden<\/a> to focus on funding left-wing <\/strong>organizations, is part of a concerted effort \u201cto make America into a one-party system.\u201d<\/p>\n

In one \u201cradical\u201d example, the report says,<\/a> Ohio\u2019s University of Dayton used a DHS grant of $352,109 to target conservative organizations as part of a \u201cPyramid of Far-Right Radicalization,\u201d including The Heritage Foundation, Fox News, the National Rifle Association, and the Republican National Committee. (The Daily Signal is Heritage\u2019s multimedia news organization.) <\/p>\n

Brent Bozell III, founder and president of the Media Research Center, describes the report as uncovering documents showing that \u201cthe government is colluding with left-wing activists, academics, and state and local officials in an active effort to target some of the most prestigious conservatives and prominent political, religious, and media groups in the country, linking them directly to Nazis and terrorists.\u201d <\/p>\n

Fox News, one of the conservative organizations found to be targeted by the Biden administration grants, broke the news on the MRC\u2019s<\/a> findings.<\/p>\n

The DHS grants are supposed to provide funding for local jurisdictions to combat \u201call forms of terrorism and targeted violence,\u201d according to a copy of the executive summary of \u201cExposed,\u201d obtained by The Daily Signal<\/a>, but:<\/p>\n

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Instead of focusing on preventing actual violence and terrorism, the program is now being used to target the entire spectrum of the political right and Christians through \u2018media literacy and online critical thinking initiatives\u2019 and other so-called training seminars as part of a coordinated effort to make America into a one-party system.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
A product of the Media Research Center\u2019s Free Speech America project, \u201cExposed\u201d and related documents were sent Monday to Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio<\/a>, chairman of a House select panel on government weaponization, with a request for criminal prosecution.<\/p>\n
The Obama administration initiated the grant program in the Department of Homeland Security<\/a>, according to the report, and the Trump administration refocused it as part of a toolbox to prevent terrorism.<\/p>\n
DHS has awarded 80 grants so far under Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, a Biden appointee who called the program a \u201chigh priority\u201d in an internal memo that MRC Free Speech America says it obtained exclusively.<\/p>\n
The \u201canti-American program,\u201d called the Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention Grant Program, has cost taxpayers nearly $40 million, the report says. The 80 grants awarded range from $85,000 to $1.19 million.<\/p>\n
Among the findings:<\/p>\n
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The University of Dayton\u2019s PREVENTS-OH program established by the grant, promised to \u201cdraw on the expertise of the University of Dayton faculty\u201d to fight \u201cdomestic violence extremism and hate movements.\u201d (The acronym stands for Preventing Radicalization to Extremist Violence through Education, Network-Building and Training in Southwest Ohio.)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
But the \u201cFar-Right Radicalization\u201d chart used by DHS and the university in a training seminar \u201cequates mainstream groups with militant neo-Nazis,\u201d the report says. It says those organizations include the Christian Broadcasting Network, Turning Point USA, PragerU, Breitbart News, and the American Conservative Union Foundation, as well as Heritage, Fox News, the National Rifle Association, and the Republican National Committee.<\/p>\n
The seminar also compared former President Donald Trump<\/a> to the late Cambodian dictator Pol Pot, <\/a>who oversaw genocide, and it suggested that another prominent Republican politician, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis<\/a>, might want to start \u201ca second Holocaust.\u201d<\/p>\n
The program\u2019s seminars (including one headlined by a DHS agent, the report says) feature lectures by University of Cincinnati research fellow Michael Loadenthal, a self-identified member of the violent extremist group Antifa<\/a>, whose Twitter feed \u201cis rife with posts celebrating acts of left-wing violence (often against police officers).\u201d<\/p>\n
Loadenthal, the report says, used the University of Dayton\u2019s program \u201cto explain in detail how to create dummy accounts on free speech social media platforms like Telegram, Gab, and Rumble in order to \u2018destabilize\u2019 political movements.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of things we\u2019re doing are illegal,\u201d Loadenthal said in one lecture, according to the report. \u201cA lot of it involves breaking the law.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The Obama administration established the grant office in 2011 under a 12-page plan titled \u201cEmpowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism in the United States.\u201d The Trump administration, beginning in 2017, revamped it as the Office of Targeted Violence and Terrorism Prevention.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
On the campaign trail in 2020, Biden pledged to disband the office, but he and Mayorkas \u201cappear to have hijacked it for their own political agenda\u201d by awarding grants to \u201cfar-left projects.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The median amount of the 80 grants made during the Biden administration is $442,000. A total of 52% of grants have gone to public institutions such as universities and county governments, and 48% have gone to private organizations such as the LGBTQ+ advocacy group Out Boulder County and the University of Dayton.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts<\/a> and the leaders of other conservative organizations named as targets in the report learned of the findings in a letter dated Friday from Daisy Judge, MRC\u2019s external affairs manager. The Media Research Center, founded in 1987, says the \u201cExposed\u201d report, written by Luis Cornelio and Tim Killcullen, is the result of investigative efforts under the Freedom of Information Act.<\/p>\n
The Department of Homeland Security \u201cresisted producing documents pursuant to our Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to date,\u201d according to the executive summary. But, it says, \u201cMRC Free Speech America has acquired scores of documents directly from DHS grant recipients and other related organizations revealing the true and nefarious nature of the Biden administration\u2019s objectives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jordan is chairman of the House Judiciary Committee as well as of the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government, which is conducting hearings on what it considers questionable activities by the Biden administration.<\/p>\n
The evidence warrants \u201ccriminal prosecution,\u201d Bozell, president of the Media Research Center<\/a>, wrote in a letter to Jordan, a copy of which also was obtained by The Daily Signal. <\/p>\n
Bozell wrote:<\/p>\n
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The Media Research Center has uncovered disturbing documentation that proves that the government is colluding with left-wing activists, academics, and state and local officials in an active effort to target some of the most prestigious conservatives and prominent political, religious, and media groups in the country, linking them directly to Nazis and terrorists. Others have recently released documents suggesting this intent, but we have evidence of actual wrongdoing. \u2026<\/p>\n
Joe Biden\u2019s efforts to turn America\u2019s brave republic into a despotic regime need to be stopped. The very viability of representational democracies is at stake. The American people need to know that those who are abusing their positions in the federal government will be held accountable for this criminal behavior.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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