Mar 18, 2021 - 57min
EPISODE 7
TRM Talks: Crypto and Domestic Extremism
With Mary McCord, and Megan Squire, and and
On January 6, 2021, the storming of the United States Capitol by a mix of rioters, hooligans, and militants, bent on upending the Democratic process, shined a spotlight on the already growing threat of Domestic Extremism. Domestic Extremism, motivated by an array of grievances, ideologies, and white supremacy is what the U.S. Department of Homeland Security called, in 2020, “the most persistent and lethal threat in the Homeland.”
Who is the radical right? How do they use social media? How are they financed and why is Bitcoin, according to white supremacist Richard Spencer, “the currency of the alt-right?” Watch this TRM Talk as we explore the threat of Domestic Extremism with Former Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security Mary McCord and Professor Megan Squire, a Senior Fellow Southern Poverty Law Center and one of the foremost experts on the radical right.
About the guests
Mary McCord is Executive Director and Legal Director at the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection (ICAP) and a Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center. At ICAP, Ms. McCord leads a team that brings constitutional impact litigation at all levels of the federal and state courts across a wide variety of areas including First Amendment rights, immigration, criminal justice reform, and combating the rise of private paramilitaries.
Ms. McCord was the Acting Assistant Attorney General for National Security at the U.S. Department of Justice from 2016 to 2017 and Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the National Security Division from 2014 to 2016.
Previously, Ms. McCord was an Assistant U.S. Attorney for nearly 20 years at the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. Among other positions, she served as a Deputy Chief in the Appellate Division, overseeing and arguing hundreds of cases in the U.S. and District of Columbia Courts of Appeals, and Chief of the Criminal Division, where she oversaw all criminal prosecutions in federal district court.
Ms. McCord has written about domestic terrorism, unlawful militia activity, public safety, and the rule of law for publications including the Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic, Slate, Lawfare, and Just Security. She has appeared on NPR, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, and other media outlets.
Ms. McCord graduated from Georgetown University Law School and served as a law clerk for Judge Thomas Hogan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
Megan Squire is a professor of Computer Science at Elon University (North Carolina, USA). Her main research area is applying data science techniques to understand niche and extremist online communities, particularly radical right-wing groups on social media. Dr. Squire is the author of two books on data cleaning and data mining, and over 40 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, including several Best Paper awards. In 2017, she was named the Elon University Distinguished Scholar. She currently serves as a Senior Fellow for data analytics at the Southern Poverty Law Center, and as a Senior Fellow and head of the Technical Research Unit at the Center for Analysis of the Radical Right.
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