Attorney General William Barr warned about a “witches’ brew” of extremist groups such as anarchists, “antifa-related” groups, those associated with the so-called Boogaloo movement, and others operating within the George Floyd protests to instigate violence and advance their ideologies.
During a virtual press conference at the Justice Department on Thursday, Barr and FBI Director Christopher Wray offered an assessment of outside groups they said are trying to exploit the protests.
“I do think it’s important to point out the witches’ brew of extremists that we have — the individuals and groups involved — and that’s why in my prepared statement, I specifically said in addition to antifa and other extremist groups like antifa, there were a variety of groups and people of a variety of ideological persuasions,” Barr said in response to a question. “I’m not going to get too specific. But the intelligence being collected by our U.S. attorneys’ offices — particularly integrated by the FBI from multiple different sources — is building up.”
“There are some specific cases against individuals — some antifa-related,” he said. “A lot of the extremists are involved in egging on violence and participating in violence and providing a means of violence, and we are pursuing those cases.”
“There are some groups that don’t have a particular ideology other than anarchy,” he said, adding there are “some groups that want to bring about a civil war — the Boogaloo group that has been on the margins of this as well — trying to exacerbate the violence.”
Floyd, a 46-year-old unarmed black man, died in police custody last week after a white Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin, pinned him down by placing a knee on the back of his neck for nearly nine minutes. Footage of the incident set off a wave of outrage, leading to protests in major cities across the nation, some of which became violent as protesters rioted, looted stores, destroyed property, burned buildings, and clashed with police. Chauvin is now facing charges of second-degree murder and third-degree manslaughter, and the other officers involved in Floyd’s detainment have been charged with aiding and abetting murder.
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In recent days, the Trump administration has specifically highlighted the alleged role that the far-left anarchic antifa movement was playing in exacerbating violence, with Barr repeatedly singling the group out by name and President Trump declaring his intent to designate it as a domestic terrorist group. On Wednesday, the FBI announced it had arrested three men appearing to subscribe to a far-right or extreme libertarian ideology for their apparent plan to use Molotov cocktails to cause chaos at a Black Lives Matter protest.
Barr laid out “three sets of actors” connected to the protests: first, the large proportion of “peaceful demonstrators” exercising their First Amendment rights; second, groups who “exploit” the protests as an opportunity to engage in crimes such as looting; and third, the “extremist agitators” who “hijack” the protests to pursue their own “separate and violent agenda.”
“Our nation is now confronting two serious challenges to the rule of law. The first is a long-standing one but was recently crystallized and driven home by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The video of the police conduct in this episode is harrowing,” Barr said, later adding, “Unfortunately, the aftermath of George Floyd’s death has produced a second challenge to the rule of law. While many have peacefully expressed their anger and grief, others have hijacked protests to engage in lawlessness: violent rioting, arson, looting of businesses and public property, assaults on law enforcement officers and innocent people, and even the murder of a federal agent.”
Barr made it clear that “one of the difficulties” in tamping down on the violence “is that while there are peaceful demonstrators in these protests, the instigators — those committed to violence — basically shield themselves by going among them and carrying out acts of violence.”
Wray said the FBI was “seeing people exploiting the situation to pursue violent and extremist agendas — anarchists like antifa and other agitators” and said that “these individuals have set out to sow discord and upheaval, rather than join in the righteous pursuit of equality and justice.” He lamented that “many have suffered from the violence instigated by these radical extremists, including members of our own law enforcement family” and stressed that the bureau “committed to identifying, investigating, and stopping individuals who are inciting violence and engaging in criminal activity.”
The protests across the country spread from Minnesota to dozens of cities across the country, and the ensuing looting and arson in Washington led to the National Guard being called up and federal law enforcement agencies deploying officers to the streets of the nation’s capital.
Barr said on Sunday that the Justice Department, including the FBI, the U.S. Marshals, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and the Drug Enforcement Administration, and all U.S. attorneys’ offices would support local efforts and “take all action necessary to enforce federal law.” The DEA in particular gained broader authorities to monitor violence in the protests and carry out arrests.
“We, the FBI, have quite a number of ongoing investigations of violent anarchic extremists, including those motivated by an antifa-like ideology, and we categorize and treat those as domestic terrorism investigations and are pursuing them through our Joint Terrorism Task Forces,” Wray said Thursday. “In terms of the current unrest, while a majority of the protesters are peaceful, there are certainly instigators, agitators, and opportunists seeking to exploit these demonstrations to commit violence and rioting. And exactly who these people are, who is driving them, what’s driving them, what tactics they use varies widely sometimes from city to city — and sometimes even from night to night.”
He stressed that the FBI was working with state and local law enforcement and was looking to bring federal charges whenever possible.
“We’re about the violence. We’re not about the ideology,” Wray said. “And it doesn’t matter what your ideology is. If you commit violence or rioting or acts that we consider terrorism, we’re going to pursue it.”
