Last week, the federal government took another troubling step towards criminalizing dissent with the indictment of four left-wing black nationalists and three Russians for, allegedly, sowing discord and spreading Russian propaganda. The Russians supposedly recruited the Americans to act as illegal agents of the Kremlin. That’s a charge meant to draw on the Russkies-under-the-bed panic of recent years, and one that echoes similar prosecutions by authoritarian regimes of overseas activists who receive American money. The move is hypocritical and dangerous to our liberty.

“A federal grand jury in Tampa, Florida, returned a superseding indictment charging four U.S. citizens and three Russian nationals with working on behalf of the Russian government and in conjunction with the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) to conduct a multi-year foreign malign influence campaign in the United States,” the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) announced last week. “Among other conduct, the superseding indictment alleges that the Russian defendants recruited, funded and directed U.S. political groups to act as unregistered illegal agents of the Russian government and sow discord and spread pro-Russian propaganda; the indicted intelligence officers, in particular, participated in covertly funding and directing candidates for local office within the United States.”