Transnational repression tactics include stalking, cyberhacking, assault, attempted kidnapping, as well as threats against targets’ family members and friends.
WASHINGTON—Multiple criminal networks involved in transnational repression on U.S. soil have been dismantled by the FBI, director Kash Patel said.
Criminals involved in transnational repression are acting on behalf of hostile foreign governments, Patel said in an interview with Epoch TV’s “American Thought Leaders” aired on Aug. 8.
“They’re doing it across America, and we’ve been able to shut down a lot of these networks that are infiltrating America through public spaces, the internet, social media platforms, and also trace back who’s doing it,” Patel said.
The FBI’s Philadelphia field office created a first-of-its-kind task force in January 2025 to focus on addressing the threat.
The FBI defines transnational repression as efforts by foreign governments to “intimidate, silence, coerce, harass, or harm” members of their diaspora in the United States. Tactics include stalking, online disinformation campaigns, cyberhacking, assault, attempted kidnapping, as well as threats against a target’s family members and friends.
Those typically targeted include political and human rights activists, dissidents, journalists, and members of religious or ethnic minority groups, according to the FBI.
At a congressional hearing in September 2025, Patel identified communist China as the United States’ most significant national security threat.
The task force consists of 22 federal, state, local, and community partner agencies, including the Philadelphia Police Department, the National Park Service, and campus police departments, the FBI said in March this year.
Its mission has included training area law enforcement to identify and respond to transnational repression, improving responses to suspected cases, and raising public awareness about the issue, according to the FBI.
The FBI also announced at the time that in just over a year of operations, the task force had identified more than 50 victims of transnational repression.
Patel said the FBI’s goal is “a disruption, a dismantlement, or a prosecution.”
However, the actors behind the transnational repression are not necessarily based in the countries where they might be expected to be, the director said.
“When we can’t legally get to them, or we can’t get enough evidence to meet the threshold for prosecution, we work with our partners again, at places like Treasury and elsewhere, to shut off their access to the international banking system, which they need to conduct their criminal activity,” Patel said.
Sanctions imposed by the State Department and Treasury Department are equally as powerful, he added.
“And when you do that, it’s as effective as putting handcuffs on them, essentially, because they can’t do it anymore,” he said. “That’s a win.”
By Frank Fang and Jan Jekielek
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