FBI Director Christopher Wray said that the agency has made about 100 arrests for domestic terrorism in the first three quarters of this year—and most were linked to some form of white supremacy. “Needless to say, we take domestic terrorism or hate crime, regardless of ideology, extremely seriously,” Wray said at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. He said the number of arrests so far this year is higher than in 2018. Some of the FBI’s most recent white-supremacy related arrests include the men accused of shooting at synagogues in California and Pittsburgh. Wray said that the FBI does not investigate any group solely for their beliefs, butut when those beliefs lead to violence, “we’re all over it,” he said.
In May, the head of the FBI’s counterterrorism division said the bureau was investigating 850 domestic terrorism cases, and 40 percent were racially motivated extremists. Wray also added that China was America’s biggest counterintelligence threat and that the FBI had conducted an investigation into its failure to investigate a tip that 19-year-old Nikolas Cruz might attack Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, which led to the deaths of 17 people.
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