fbi-director-testifies-on-capitol-riot-security-failures

FBI director testifies on Capitol riot security failures

Politics
1 min ago

FBI director urges Americans: “See something, say something” to combat domestic terrorism

From CNN’s Katelyn Polantz

Graeme Jennings/Pool/AP
Graeme Jennings/Pool/AP

FBI Director Christopher Wray urged Americans to take a “see something, say something” approach with hate speech and threats especially on social media and online, as the bureau attempts to combat terrorism threats in a way not seen since the terrorism crackdown after Sept. 11, 2001.

“If Americans see something on social media that seems to have crossed that line, they need to say something,” Wray added, harkening back to the post-9/11 message to “see something, say something” to combat possible impending terrorism.

“That’s going to be our best source of information to prevent this,” Wray said.

He said people who notice threats online can contact state and local law enforcement, or local FBI field offices.

He also spoke candidly about how hard it is to use social media to predict threats from Americans who have become political extremists.

“Some angry demented guy living in mom’s basement—not that there’s anything wrong with that—in one part of the country is now able to communicate with a similarly angry guy in grandma’s attic in another part of the country, and they get each other spun up now … the amount of angry, hateful, unspeakable, combative, even violent rhetoric on social media exceeds what anybody in their worst imagination is out there,” Wray said on Tuesday to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

3 min ago

Sen. Graham suggests FBI identify and define domestic terrorism organizations

From CNN’s Christina Carrega

Pool
Pool

South Carolina GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham said “it’s time” to think about defining domestic terrorism organizations. 

During a rapid-fire question and answer portion of questions with FBI Director Christopher Wray, Graham pressed Wray to define various groups that have committed acts of domestic terrorism, White supremacy, and racist attacks for decades.

Read their exchange:

“Is the Proud Boys, are they a domestic terrorist group?” Graham asked. 

“Well, I don’t think we have treated the Proud Boys itself as a domestic terrorism group, but we certainly have individuals,” Wray said before he was interrupted by Graham. 

“What does it take to make the list?” Graham asked. 

“Well there is, as you may know senator, under federal law under US law, there is no list of domestic terrorism organizations, the same way there is for foreign terrorist organization,” Wray responded. 

“Well, let’s think about that the next 47 seconds. Oath Keepers, are they a domestic terrorist organization?” Graham asked. 

“Again, as with Proud Boys, we have individuals who associate themselves with that group who are…” Wray said before another interruption by Graham.

“Was Antifa a domestic terrorist organization? Same thing, same answer?” Graham asked. 

“Same answer,” Wray said.  

“So why don’t we think about how to gather better information and expose some of these groups. If they were on a list would it make it easier for you?” Graham asked. 

“I think the issue of whether or not to designate or have a formal mechanism for designating domestic terror ‘groups,'” Wray said while putting up air quotes around “group.” Wray added, “the same way we do with say al Qaeda or ISIS.” 

“Is the KKK a domestic terrorist group?” Graham asked. 

“Well, that there is no legal designation for a domestic terrorist group…,” Wray responded. 

“My point is, I don’t know if we should have one or not, but I think it’s time to think about it,” Graham said. 

4 min ago

Wray says FBI sent “more than just an email” to law enforcement agencies about online chatter before Jan. 6

From CNN’s Katelyn Polantz

Pool
Pool

Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar questioned FBI Director Christopher Wray about the communication failures that occurred on Jan. 6 and the much-discussed Norfolk memo, named for the FBI office in Virginia where it originated.

Wray described how the FBI quickly shared an intelligence report about online chatter before Jan. 6, saying they provided information in three ways to other law enforcement agencies, after receiving the information from the FBI’s Norfolk field office. 

The Norfolk memo has become central to questions about whether law enforcement agencies protecting the Capitol had enough sound intelligence to prepare before the siege.

Wray’s answers to at least three senators’ questions on Tuesday about the Norfolk report fill out where and how the intelligence was shared, and stands in contrast to testimony last week from law enforcement chiefs around the Capitol who largely blamed security failures on Jan. 6 on a lack of intelligence that had been communicated. Former US Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund told House lawmakers, for example, that he only learned days before last week’s hearing about the bombshell FBI memo.

Wray said the Norfolk report was passed to law enforcement partners, including the Capitol Police, Metropolitan Police Department within an hour after it was received, he said on Tuesday.

It was shared in three ways, he said: an email to the Joint Terrorism Task Force, a verbal command post briefing in the Washington field office and at FBI headquarters that involved police in DC, and through the law enforcement portal.

Read a part of Klobuchar and Wray’s exchange in today’s hearing:

Klobuchar: “One of my questions that we’ll continue to be asking as part of this investigation we’re doing with the Rules Committee and Homeland Security, is how could we change this so this never happens again. So those type of threats — this type of information gets to the right people. And do you have any response on that? 

Wray: Well, as I said, if connection with the particular report that you’re referring to, the Norfolk S.I.R. as they call it, we did communicate that information in a timely fashion to the Capitol Police and MPD in not one, not two, but three different ways. 

Klobuchar: You think it is enough just to send an email? 

Wray: It is more than just an email. Right. So first off the email itself, went to I think there may be as many as five capitol police task force officers on the joint terrorism task force, and the whole point of the task force is for the chosen representatives of the partner agency to be there in the loop real-time so that everybody has the same information so that each agency could use that information to do what it needs to do.”

“So having said that, I do not consider what happened on January 6th to be an acceptable result and that is why we’re looking at figuring how to the process could be improved,” Wray continued.

Wray called the memo “raw, unverified, uncorroborated information” that had been gathered from online posts, but was notable enough for the FBI to share with police in Washington, DC, almost immediately.

Wray did not see the Norfolk report until after Jan. 6, he added.

 WATCH:

51 min ago

Wray says “more arrests” gives FBI insight on domestic terrorism

From CNN’s Christina Carrega

FBI Director Christopher Wray says the agency is “always looking to develop more and better sources” to combat domestic terrorism and counterterrorism threats, but the key to gain intelligence is through arrests.

Wray was responding to a question from Ranking Member Chuck Grassley, who referenced comments from former acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf and former Attorney General William Barr, that the FBI has programs focused on White supremacy and militia extremism but has “significantly weaker anarchic extremism programs.” 

Wray said that the more arrests the FBI make “the more from those cases we learn about who else their contacts are, what their tactics are, what their strategies are, etc. and that makes us smarter and better able to get in front of the threat, going forward.” 

1 hr 11 min ago

Wray says the investigation into Officer Brian Sicknick’s death is still ongoing

From CNN’s Christina Carrega

Graeme Jennings/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
Graeme Jennings/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

Ranking Member Chuck Grassley pressed FBI Director Christopher Wray on the investigation into the death of Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick. 

Grassley said there have been “conflicting reports about” Sicknick’s cause of death and asked Wray if the FBI has determined what happened and if a homicide investigation has launched. 

Wray said the investigation is still ongoing. “As soon as there are information that we could appropriately share, we want to be able to do that, but at the moment the investigation is still ongoing,” Wray said. 

Wray said that the agency is not at a point where he could “disclose or confirm a cause of death.”

1 hr 8 min ago

Wray refutes claims that Antifa and leftists added to Capitol riot

From CNN’s Katelyn Polantz and Zachary Cohen

Graeme Jennings/Pool/Getty Images
Graeme Jennings/Pool/Getty Images

FBI Director Christopher Wray resoundingly said Antifa and other leftists were not part of the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

“We have not, to date, seen any evidence of anarchist violence extremists or people subscribing to Antifa in connection to the 6th,” Wray told the Senate on Tuesday. 

“We’re coming after it” if there’s violence from both the left and the right, he added, but in the Capitol, there wasn’t evidence of leftists adding fuel to the insurrection. 

Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin had asked Wray if he had seen evidence that the attack was organized by “fake Trump protesters.”

“We have not seen evidence of that, at this stage, certainly,” Wray responded.

This knocks down a baseless claim that has been pushed by Republican Sen. Ron Johnson in recent weeks, as he has sought to downplay the damage committed by supporters of former President Donald Trump.

More than 260 defendants — many of them professing allegiance to Trump, disgust for Congress and support of revolution — have been charged in federal court related to their actions in and around the US Capitol siege on January 6.

Previously, nearly a dozen Trump supporters charged in connection with the US Capitol insurrection have said that Antifa and other left-wing groups weren’t involved in the attack, further debunking the conspiracy among Trump supporters.

WATCH:

1 hr 26 min ago

FBI director: Some insurrectionists were “racially motivated violent extremists” advocating White supremacy

Mandel Ngan/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
Mandel Ngan/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin asked FBI director Christopher Wray if he agreed that White supremacists and other violent extremists attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6.

Wray said the bureau is seeing “quite a number of what would we call militia violent extremists” as the FBI builds its cases agains the rioters. He specifically mentioned the groups the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers.

He added that they have seen in their investigations instances of “racially motivated violent extremists” who advocate for White supremacy.

“One of the things that is happening as part of this is that as we build out the cases on the individuals when we arrest them for the violence, we’re getting a richer and richer understanding of the different people’s motivations,” he said. “But certainly as I said, militia violent extremism and some instances of racially motivated violent extremism, especially advocating for the superior of the white race.”

Wray also noted that during his tenure as FBI director, he’s seen a growth in the number of investigations related to racially motivated violent extremism.

“When it comes to racially motivated violent extremism, the number of investigations and number of arrests has grown significantly on my watch. And the number of arrests for example of racially motivated violent extremists who are what you would categorize as White supremacists last year, was almost triple the number it was in my first year as director,” Wray said.

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1 hr 35 min ago

Domestic terrorism has been “metastasizing across the country for a long time now,” FBI director says

Mandel Ngan/Pool/AFP via Getty Images
Mandel Ngan/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

FBI Director Christopher Wray pushed back on claims that his agency has not been tackling domestic terrorism, saying in his opening statement today that the FBI has been “sounding the alarm” for a “number of years now.”

“Unfortunately, as you noted, Mr. Chairman, January 6th was not an isolated event. The problem of domestic terrorism has been metastasizing across the country for a long time now and it is not going is a way any time soon,” Wray said.

“At the FBI we’ve been sounding the alarm on it for a number of years now. I’ve been sounding the alarm about domestic terrorism since I think just about my first month on the job when I first started appearing up on the hill and I’ve spoken about it, and in maybe a dozen different congressional hearings, so whenever we’ve had the chance we’ve tried to emphasize this is a top concern and remains so for the FBI,” Wray said.

The FBI director noted that his agency viewed this as such a “critical threat,” that back in June of 2019 it elevated “racially and ethnically motivated violent extremism to our highest threat priority” at the same level with “with ISIS and home grown violent extremism.”

“Let me make one thing clear, the FBI will not tolerate agitators and extremists who plan or commit violence, period. And that goes for a violent extremists of any stripe,” Wray told lawmakers. “As I’ve said many times, we do not investigate ideology, but we focus on acts of violence and violations of federal law. And when we see those, when we see those, we will bring to bear the full weight of our resources, our experience and our partnerships.” 

WATCH:

1 hr 55 min ago

Where things stand in the Jan. 6 investigation, according to the the FBI director

Pool
Pool

FBI Director Christopher Wray opened his testimony on Capitol Hill today by stating that the bureau views the attack on Jan. 6 as “domestic terrorism.”

He said the behavior that day by the rioters was “criminal” and has “no place in our democracy.” Wray added that “tolerating” the actions of those who sieged the Capitol “would make a mockery of our nation’s rule of law.”

Here’s where the FBI director said things stand with the Jan. 6 investigation:

  • People have sent the FBI more than 270,000 digital media tips.
  • The FBI has opened hundreds of investigations in all but one of their 56 field offices around the country.
  • The FBI has arrested more than 270 people to date and more than 300 when you include the FBI’s partner agencies, Wray said.