Trump wants RICO charges against CODEPINK looked into after D.C. restaurant protest, escalating crackdown on dissent and free speech, writes Natalia Marques.
CODEPINK peace activists confront Donald Trump at a restaurant in Washington, DC (Screenshot via CODEPINK/Youtube)
By Natalia Marques
Peoples Dispatch
Activists from the anti-war group CODEPINK confronted U.S. President Donald Trump and his cabinet at a restaurant in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 9. The disruption made national headlines and (evidently) sent the Trump administration into a frenzy.
At the restaurant peace activists got surprisingly close to Trump and cabinet members including Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, shouting “Free DC, free Palestine, Trump is the Hitler of our time!” Trump appeared to react with visible frustration as he gestured for his security to remove the protesters, saying “Get them out of here.”
Trump has since issued direct threats against the activists who disrupted his dinner. In remarks to press, Trump claimed one of the activists was a “paid agitator,” and is looking into having U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi look into bringing RICO charges against the protesters “because they should be put in jail.”
“What they are doing to this country is really subversive,” 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 who opposed the construction of a multi-million dollar police training facility in Atlanta, known as “Cop City” by Georgia’s Attorney General Chris Carr. After a legal battle of 2 years, the charges were finally dismissed on Sept. 9, 2025.
“‘[T]hey should be put in jail,’ Trump said …. ‘What they are doing to this country is really subversive.’“
“Anyone who values free speech should be appalled at this attempt to criminalize it,” Melissa Garriga, a spokesperson for CODEPINK, told Peoples Dispatch. “We 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.”
CODEPINK protesting U.S. President Donald Trump’s June 2025 military parade. (CODEPINK photo/ X)
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 U.S. politicians accountable for their support for Israel.
An Unbroken Tradition of Disrupting Power
“We have never shied away from disrupting power regardless of which party is in office,” said Garriga. CODEPINK began organizing in the lead-up to the U.S. 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 U.S. war on Iraq, including denouncing then-president George W. Bush’s “naked aggression” by staging demonstrations spelling out the word “PEACE” with their naked bodies.
CODEPINK has been organizing against war and for human rights ever since. The organization runs the website “Bought by Zionism”, which tracks pro-Israel lobbyist funding of U.S. politicians. The organization has made a habit of direct confrontations with those politicians, financed by AIPAC and other pro-Israel groups.
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 on video “Yeah, Hamas is responsible for killing all of those children.”
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 New York representative Ritchie Torres on Capitol Hill, asking whether he believes “a green card holder who committed no crime should be arrested.” Torres replied, “If you are engaged in violent conduct that takes over a building on a college campus, that’s not free speech.”
“It’s a really critical moment for other organizations to stand in solidarity, loud and clear solidarity with organizations facing repression,” Garriga said. “Now’s 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’t agree with every intricate stance of our organizations, it’s time to demonstrate real solidarity, or else we will all lose.”
Natalia Marques is a writer at Peoples Dispatch, an organizer, and a graphic designer.
This article is from Peoples Dispatch.
The views expressed in this article may or may not reflect those of Consortium News.
We know who the RICO criminals are : the one who wears orange and his few friends (mostly oligarchs).
Trump is out of his mind.
“Activists from the anti-war group CODEPINK confronted U.S. President Donald Trump and his cabinet at a restaurant in Washington, D.C. on Sept. 9.” NATALIA MARQUES. “Activists” aka Trump’s “Radical” Leftists, (WOMEN)!
Oh, Men, Women & Children, “Give It Up for Trump’s “Radical” Leftists (Women) “Raising the Roof” @ *“Joe’s” in D.C.!!
Imo, it was NOT a confrontation but an absophknlutely “heart-felt, on f/fire “Welcome, in, Mr. President & Company!” NOT! Clearly, it was a “Listen, Linda,” moment! Directed squarely, face-to-face, w/Trump-Vance, “Little” Marco Rubio & Pete Hegseth. These women f/rocked Trump’s-Vance’s, Inc., world, i.e., “They flipped the $cript & Shot the Plot!
Everybody, knows, how this ends. Yep, DJ “the Big $hot” Trump’s scowling, burnt-orange, mug, i.e., an American Eagle w/bad genes rock’n “cotton candy hair sprayed w/piss”, got hate & war, written all over it, “Get ‘em outta here!” No worries, Mr. President; &, out the front door, they went.
No doubt about it, “CODEPINK has been rock’n, organizing against war and for human rights,” FOR F/EVER!!! CODEPINK has rocked a number of beyond spot flipp’n on “Campaigns.” L o n g live CODEPINK. TY! “Keep It Lit!”
*hxxs://dc.eater.com/dining-out-in-dc/163467/trump-dines-out-dc-joes-seafood-downtown
We in US have always had to fight for our 1rst Amendment, and the others of Bill of Rights, and yet there has been in recent past unto today, so many millions who seem to want to remove it from Constitution.
No matter the political party, well repub and dems, both at times have and would still abuse not only the Bill of Rights but most of Constitution;.. When the have political majority of elected..
Thank you for reporting on this matter. I would like to add that it is not just a Gaza Genocide. It is a #PalestineHolocaust #IsraeliApartheid .
It is happening in the West Bank. It is not Israel, it is Occupied State Of Palestine. Plus Hamas is the Government. Al Qassam are The Resistance Freedom Fighters. Thank you