Federal prosecutors charge two Cop City protestors as part of NSPM-7 initiative
Cop City-related charges become the second case brought that explicitly mentions the controversial Trump administration initiative, NSPM-7, targeting left-leaning movements.
A federal grand jury indicted two Cop City activists on arson charges Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia as part of a joint task force initiative created to target left-leaning political activists and organizations.
A Justice Department press release says, “This case is part of a nationwide National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 initiative,” and “led by the investigative and prosecutorial Joint Task Force Vanguard.”
Katie Kloth, 39, and Tyler Norman, 42, are accused of damaging the Brasfield & Gorrie headquarters in Cobb County, Georgia, during a protest at the facility on May 12, 2022. Brasfield & Gorrie was the general contractor at the time for the Atlanta Public Safety Training Center, better known as “Cop City.” The company was at times the target of protests by the Stop Cop City movement, a multi-year campaign to stop the building of the training center.
The indictment also alleges that Kloth and Norman attempted to intimidate Brasfield & Gorrie employees through the use of “fire and explosives” during “civil disorder.”
Earlier this year, Kloth, Norman and Hannah Kass were indicted by a Cobb County grand jury on state arson and property destruction charges. Kass was not part of the federal indictment. The three have requested a speedy trial for the Cobb County charges, which is scheduled to begin on June 22.
Xavier T. de Janon, from the People’s Law Collective, who is representing Kass in the Cobb County case, said of the federal indictment, “One of the instructions after NSPM-7 was for FBI offices across the country to revisit old files, especially on what they call Antifa, to bring indictments against these people.”
President Donald Trump signed NSPM-7, “Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence,” in September, causing immediate alarm among civil service organizations and other free speech advocates across the ideological divide. The memo directs the federal government to target a wide range of left-leaning political movements: “anti-fascism, anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism and anti-Christianity”; “extremism on migration, race, and gender”; and “hostility toward those who hold traditional American views on family, religion and morality.”
“NSPM-7 orders federal law enforcement and local law enforcement to investigate, infiltrate, and prosecute these groups and these people that the government frames as being criminal,” de Janon said.
The federal Cop City indictment is the second DOJ press release crediting criminal charges to the NSPM-7 initiative.
On Thursday, June 4, the DOJ announced the indictment of a Cleveland, Oklahoma, man for allegedly “threatening to assault and murder a Senator and his family.” That indictment is similarly credited to NSPM-7 and Vanguard.
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That’s not the only other case connected to NSPM-7, de Janon said. Federal prosecutors unsealed an indictment against eight pro-Palestine activists for their alleged actions in a 2024-2025 campaign to convince the University of Michigan to divest from Israel.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the same week that we see this indictment in Michigan for allegations that happened years ago,” de Janon said, “we see an indictment in Georgia similarly for allegations that happened years ago.”
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