The Justice Department shed light on the reasons behind the doubling of domestic terrorism cases since early 2020, with a top DOJ official saying prosecutions related to the Capitol riot make up “at least a significant portion of that jump.”
Matt Olsen, the assistant attorney general in charge of DOJ’s National Security Division, told the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday that “the number of FBI investigations of suspected domestic violent extremism has more than doubled since the spring of 2020.”
He revealed much of that rise is due to prosecutions of those involved in the events of Jan. 6, 2021.
Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD), a member of the House select committee investigating the Capitol riot, asked Olsen if the jump in domestic terrorism investigations has led to a jump in indictments, excluding Jan. 6 prosecutions.
“I don’t have a specific number on that, congressman, because that number, that jump, doubling, that number does include the Jan. 6 cases, and there, of course, we have over 800 arrests of individuals — not all of them are characterized as domestic violent extremists, to be clear, but many are, and those do account for at least a significant portion of that jump over the past two years in the number of investigations,” Olsen replied.
Attorney General Merrick Garland compared the Capitol Riot to the Oklahoma City bombing of 1995 when unveiling the Justice Department’s response to the Biden administration’s new anti-domestic terrorism strategy last June.
DOJ said this week that more than 850 defendants have been arrested in relation to the Capitol riot, including over 260 charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement. Members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers have been hit with seditious conspiracy charges and have pleaded not guilty.
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Olsen told Rep. Val Demings (D-FL) that Jan. 6 “stands apart” and “represents now the single largest domestic terrorism investigation in the nation’s history.”
Olsen announced the creation of a new “domestic terrorism unit” in January.
Since the May leak of a draft of the Supreme Court’s opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, there have been heightened threats against Supreme Court justices and anti-abortion advocates, including attacks and vandalism targeting activist groups, pregnancy centers, and churches across the country. Republicans have repeatedly pressed Garland on investigating these attacks as domestic terrorism.
Olsen told Rep. Steve Chabot (R-OH) that the FBI has opened cases involving those attacks and threats, some of which have been opened as “domestic violent extremist cases.”
In his opening statement, Olsen said the threat posed by domestic violent extremism is rising, pointing to attacks in Buffalo, Pittsburgh, El Paso, and Charlottesville, as well as the 2017 shooting during a Republican practice session of the Congressional Baseball Game.
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The FBI admitted in May 2021 that the 2017 shooting that nearly killed Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) had been classified as “domestic terrorism.” The bureau had previously classified it as “suicide by cop.”
