Agents at the FBI are being pressured by superior officers to massage reports and pad the resulting data on the number of incidents involving domestic violent extremists (DVE), according to information provided by agency whistleblowers to Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).
Jordan is presently the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee, and is likely to become chairman of the panel if the GOP retakes the majority in the lower chamber of Congress in the November elections.
The Ohio Republican made public late on July 27 his letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray explaining that GOP members of the judiciary panel “continue to hear from brave whistleblowers about disturbing conduct at the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
“From recent protected disclosures, we have learned that FBI officials are pressuring agents to reclassify cases as ‘domestic violent extremism’ even if the cases do not meet the criteria for such a classification,” the letter reads (pdf).
“Given the narrative pushed by the Biden Administration that domestic violent extremism is the ‘greatest threat’ facing our country, the revelation that the FBI may be artificially padding domestic terrorism data is scandalous.”
Jordan noted that the FBI’s definition of DVEs is “an individual based and operating primarily within the United States or its territories without direction or inspiration from a foreign terrorist group or other foreign power who seeks to further political or social goals wholly or in part through unlawful acts of force or violence.”
Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland have repeatedly claimed that violence perpetrated by DVEs, including the Jan. 6, 2021, breach at the U.S. Capitol, represent the greatest domestic security threat facing the United States.
Wray told Congress last year, according to Jordan, that the FBI has established a “very, very active domestic terrorism investigation program” and “doubled the amount of domestic terrorism investigations,” while Garland has said the “number of open FBI domestic terrorism investigations this year has increased significantly.”
