According to a new report, the Federal Bureau of Investigation is currently conducting three times as many domestic terrorism investigations compared to five years ago.
With this surge in investigations, the bureau has also shifted priorities so “anti-authority” and civil unrest issues accounting for most cases, said the Newsweek report. Internal FBI numbers and unnamed sources were cited by the outlet.
Last month, FBI Director Christopher Wray also said that “the number of FBI domestic terrorism investigations has more than doubled since the spring of 2020, and as of the end of fiscal year 2022, the FBI was conducting approximately 2,700 domestic terrorism investigations.”
“The threat posed by international and domestic threat actors has evolved significantly since 9/11,” said an FBI in a report released in October. “One of the most significant terrorism threats to the Homeland we face today is posed by lone offenders and small groups of individuals who commit acts of violence motivated by a range of ideological beliefs and/or personal grievances.”
In the report, the FBI referenced the mass shooting this year at a supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y.
“Of these actors, domestic violent extremists represent one of the most persistent threats to the United States today,” said the bureau. “These individuals are often radicalized online and look to conduct attacks with easily accessible weapons.”
A senior FBI official who provided information to Newsweek about FBI domestic terrorism investigations was “granted anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media,” the outlet explained.
The outlet said anti-government domestic terrorism became a priority for the FBI after the deadly Capitol riot last January and made up 90% of all investigations. Documents cited by Newsweek indicate that “civil unrest” and anti-government activity accounts for 70% of all open cases.
“If an act is focused on the government, it’s terrorism,” said a Newsweek FBI source. “But if extremism is focused on private individuals or institutions, it’s considered just a crime or classified as a hate crime.”
In 2020 – before the Capitol riot, where protesters called for then Vice President Mike Pence to be hanged and sought to prevent President Joe Biden’s votes to be finalized – the FBI and other agencies considered groups “advocating the superiority of the white race” would continue to be the most lethal domestic terrorism (DT) threat in the U.S.
An FBI report released in October showed that racially motivated domestic terrorism accounted for 40% of the agency’s domestic terrorism investigations in 2020 and just 19% in 2021. Anti-government extremism cases made up 37% in 2020 and increased just 1% in 2021, while anti-riot and civil unrest increased from 17% to 31%.
Newsweek said that the bureau recently “quietly changed the general classification of white supremacy, antisemitism, abortion-, and anti-LGBTQI+-related extremism,” to hate crimes rather than domestic terrorism.
“Hate crimes violations and DT are not mutually exclusive. A hate crime is targeted violence motivated by the offender’s bias against a person’s actual or perceived characteristics, while a DT incident involves acts dangerous to human life that are in violation of criminal laws and in furtherance of a social or political goal,” said the FBI report.
“The Bureau isn’t partisan per se,” Newsweek’s FBI source said, “though it finds itself investigating mostly MAGA and related political activity as domestic terrorism. Right-wing-oriented domestic terrorists—suspected terrorists—account for more than 80% of all cases in the anti-government category.”
A senior government official cited by Newsweek also said that “Washington remains obsessed with January 6 and Donald Trump.” So far, hundreds of people have been charged in connection with the riot, including members of the far-right extremist group the Oath Keepers as well as the Proud Boys, a hate group connected with white nationalist rhetoric.
“Make no mistake, the January 6 attack was not an isolated incident,” said Rep. Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), chairman of House Committee on Homeland Security in a statement last month. “I have followed the threat of domestic terrorism for nearly two decades, have watched it grow and have urged action to combat it. According to the Department of Homeland Security, it is the greatest terrorism threat to our homeland. And from what we’ve seen after the 2020 election, it is also clearly a threat to the rule of law and our democracy.”
Another change since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks regarding the bureau’s approach to domestic terrorism has been an increased focus on preventing attacks before they happen, said Newsweek.
“Stopping terrorism before it happens has been the entire career focus of most FBI agents and intelligence analysts in the 20-year war on terrorism, and is now being applied to domestic terrorism,” according to the outlet. “The FBI and the Intelligence Community are already significantly increasing their monitoring of social media and working more closely with local law enforcement to uncover potential plots and monitor individuals and groups.”
However, a senior government official who spoke to the outlet said that if you “scratch the surface and the number of Americans who want to overthrow the government or even weaken democracy is tiny.” says the senior government official.
A Morning Consult poll conducted shortly after the mass shooting in Buffalo showed that a vast majority of people supported prosecution, monitoring and investigation of domestic terrorism in the U.S.
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