Here is the portion of the DOJ statue that will likely be used.....it applies to anyone not just federal employees
Hate Crimes
The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act of 2009 , 18 U.S.C. § 249. Section 249 of Title 18 was enacted as Division E of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2010 (starts at pg. 646 of the Act). Section 249, which went into effect in October 2009, created a new federal criminal prohibition against willfully causing bodily injury (or attempting to do so using fire, a firearm, or another dangerous weapon), when (1) the crime was committed because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin of any person, or (2) the crime was committed because of the actual or perceived religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, or disability of any person and the crime affected interstate or foreign commerce or occurred within federal special maritime and territorial jurisdiction. The law also provides federal funding and technical assistance to state, local, and tribal jurisdictions to help them to more effectively investigate and prosecute hate crimes.”
That is NOT a civil rights violation and it will be very difficult to prove a hate crime, though they might try, it will probably be tossed out.
The FBI investigated Zimmerman early on and found no hint of racism. And said so.
This, along with his history of helping black kids learn to read and similar very much not racist actions, would make such a case even more absurd than this murder case.