Pam Bondi wants FBI to place cash bounties on trans activists

US attorney general Pam Bondi has instructed the FBI to place bounties on trans activists promoting “radical gender ideology,” a leaked memo suggests.

The Trump administration’s chief legal advisor instructed the US security service to create a “cash reward system” incentivising members of the public to share information on what the attorney’s office described as “domestic terrorist groups.”

These groups, according to Bondi, include groups or individuals promoting so-called “radical gender ideology” and “hostility towards traditional values on family, religion, and morality.”

The leaked memo, issued on 5 December, argues the strategy would lead to the “successful identification and arrest” of relevant individuals and groups.

Orders were issued in response to a memorandum, signed by Donald Trump in the wake of right-wing pundit Charlie Kirk’s assassination in September, which aims to combat when the US president has routinely called the “enemy within.”

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) called the memorandum, dubbed NSPM-7, a “fever dream of conspiracies” and “outright falsehoods” which, they argued, was designed to silence Trump’s political opponents.

Citing the document, Bondi wrote that implementing cash bounties would help federal law enforcement to enforce provisions outlined in NSPM-7.

She suggested that groups that fall under the government’s definition of domestic terrorism would be prosecuted and face charges including conspiracy against the United States, which carries a minimum sentence of five years in prison.

White House says it’s ‘worth looking into’ claims of so-called ‘transgender violence’

The leaked memo specifically cites the infamous engravings on bullet casings found near the site of Kirk’s death, featuring messages such as “if you read this, you are gay lmao.”

Numerous experts said the engravings, while featuring anti-fascist messages, did not necessarily indicate political beliefs.

Jamie Cohen, assistant professor of media studies at Queens College, told Sky News at the time that the bullets could be a “doublespeak” to confuse or misinform investigators.

The Trump administration has, on several occasions, signalled its desire to investigate what it spuriously claims is a rise in domestic extremism by trans people.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in September it was “worth looking into” claims there has been a rise in so-called “transgender violence” in the US.

This claim is untrue. National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses research director Michael Jensen told USA Today there is “no evidence” that trans people are disproportionately responsible for mass violence in the US.

He said that, of the more than 1,000 mass casualty plots the organisation has tracked since 2023, the number perpetrated by trans people could be counted on “less than one hand.”

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