FBI chief warns violent ‘domestic terrorism’ growing in US

Daily US Times: On Tuesday, Christopher Wray, the Director of FBI, bluntly labeled the January 6 US Capitol riot as “domestic terrorism” and warned of a rapidly growing threat of homegrown violent extremism that law enforcement is struggling to confront through thousands of investigations.

The FBI Director also defended to lawmakers FBI’s handling of an intelligence report that warned of the prospect for violence on January 6.

And he firmly rejected false claims advanced by some Republicans that anti-Trump groups had organized the deadly riot in the Capitol that began when a violent mob stormed the building as Congress was gathering to certify results of Joe Biden’s election win.

This was Christopher Wray’s first testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee since the insurrection. The hearing was one in a series of hearings centered on the law enforcement response to the insurrection. Lawmakers pressed him not only about possible communication and intelligence failures ahead of the riot but also about the threat of violence from militias, white supremacists, and other extremists that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says it is prioritizing with the same urgency as the menace of international terrorism organizations.

Wray told lawmakers: “January 6 was not an isolated event. The problem of domestic terrorism has been metastasizing across the country for a long time now and it’s not going away anytime soon,”

“At the FBI, we’ve been sounding the alarm on it for a number of years now,” the FBI Director added.

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