Senator Ted Cruz of Texas used a Senate Judiciary committee hearing on Tuesday to back FBI Director Kash Patel’s probe into Charlie Kirk’s assassination, urging the Bureau to “follow the money” behind years of coordinated and well-funded waves of left-wing violence.
Cruz went beyond just the recent assassination, pointing to Black Lives Matter and Antifa riots during the summer of 2020, pro-Hamas campus encampments shortly after October 7th, 2023, and the riots against ICE just this last summer as prominent and ongoing examples of a broader pattern of left-wing violence.
He suggested these movements may not be isolated incidents, but part of a coordinated effort with significant outside funding and support.
But I want to more broadly, encourage you follow the money. The violence we are seeing is not purely organic. There is, I believe, significant money that is spreading dissension, that is spreading violence.
I believe the money should be tracked and prosecuted under RICO, and both the Antifa and Black Lives Matter riots of a couple of years ago and the pro open border riots in Los Angeles and other cities of this past year, I believe there was significant money behind those riots. I'm not the only person who noticed at the antisemitic protest and violent protests on college campuses that many of the tents all matched.
Senator Cruz introduced the Stop FUNDERs Act earlier this year, which would make rioting a predicate offense under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), allowing the Department of Justice to more effectively prosecute groups like Antifa. Under the law, the DOJ could hold these organizations accountable, bringing conspiracy charges, seizing assets, and imposing penalties on those who fund and organize violent riots nationwide.
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And Kash Patel confirmed it.
"And so I would ask, would it aid your ability to prosecute these matters if Congress passed into law the Stop Funders Act, and if rioting was added to the list of predicate offenses for RICO?" Senator Cruz asked. The FBI Director's response was plain and simple, "Yes."
I am encouraging @FBIDirectorKash to follow the money.
— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) September 16, 2025
The violence we are seeing is not purely organic.
My legislation, the Stop FUNDERs Act, will allow this money to be tracked and prosecuted under RICO. pic.twitter.com/ACNju2AgtZ
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