Biden Administration Lays Out Broad Strategy for Targeting Domestic Terrorism
WASHINGTON—The Biden administration is seeking increased funds for the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation and promoting programs for civic education and digital literacy to counter a rise in domestic terrorism, according to a broad new strategy released Tuesday morning.
The 32-page policy, developed during a monthslong review, presents a governmentwide approach to President Biden’s campaign promise to reduce attacks by domestic extremists. It includes several actions already under way, such as increased funding for state and local programs to combat domestic violent extremism.
The White House’s plans were released by the National Security Council as violent attacks perpetrated by American extremists have increased to the highest level in more than 25 years, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a nonpartisan Washington think tank. Most ideologically motivated killings in recent years were committed by far-right extremists such as white supremacists, according to the think tank and Department of Homeland Security figures.
In March, U.S. intelligence agencies found that white supremacists and antigovernment militia extremists pose the most lethal threat among domestic violent extremists, echoing findings from DHS and testimony last year by FBI Director Christopher Wray. Attacks and plots inspired by left-wing ideology, while less prevalent, also rose last year, according to CSIS.
“The number of open FBI domestic terrorism investigations this year has increased significantly,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a Tuesday speech, adding that technology has helped inspire violent extremists and heighten the threat. Domestic extremists, he said, “increasingly take common cause and inspiration from events and actions around the world, indicating an important international dimension to this problem.”
The White House’s plans don’t address whether the U.S. should make domestic terrorism a federal crime, leaving that question to Congress and the Justice Department. Some law-enforcement officials say the absence of such a statute has made it difficult to pursue violent criminals, while civil-liberties groups have argued that the government already has the necessary laws.
“Penalties are required for the definition [of domestic terrorism] to be an effective deterrent for would-be perpetrators and an effective tool for law enforcement,” said Brian O’Hare, president of the FBI Agents Association, which has been pushing for a federal domestic-terrorism statute.
Senior administration officials said their strategy is directed at violent extremists from the left and right alike. “We’ve based this strategy on hard evidence,” said a senior administration official, adding that the approach aimed “to counter those who seek to use violence to achieve their political ends.” In the document laying out its plans, the Biden administration described several attacks in recent years, including a shooting in 2017 by a leftist extremist against Republican lawmakers at a congressional baseball practice.
“The national strategy recognizes that we cannot prevent every attack,” Mr. Garland said. “The only way to find sustainable solutions is not only to disrupt and deter, but also to address the root causes of violence.”
The Justice Department already has created “anti-terrorism advisory counsels” in every U.S. attorneys office, he added, to strengthen prosecutors’ resources and expertise in handling such cases. “This will ensure that we consider all appropriate criminal offenses, and that whenever we encounter domestic terrorism we treat it for what it is,” Mr. Garland said.
In the wake of the Jan. 6 riot, which the FBI’s Mr. Wray and other law-enforcement officials have described as an act of domestic terrorism, some Republicans have expressed concerns that the Biden administration was taking a partisan tack on the issue. At an April hearing on U.S. intelligence about domestic violent extremism, Rep. Devin Nunes (R., Calif.) said he worried government surveillance was being unfairly directed at Republicans.
“I’ll tell you, half of America, Middle America, they don’t trust these agencies right now,” he said. “Republicans feel like they’ve been targeted. And you hear that every single day.”
Mr. Garland said: “We are focused on violence, not on ideology…we do not investigate individuals for their First Amendment-protected activities.”
The White House strategy expands on a similar, DHS-specific plan issued in 2019 under the Trump administration, though its remit is broader, spanning across more agencies. The Defense Department, for instance, is implementing training for service members leaving the military to make them more aware of potential targeting by violent extremist groups.
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, chief executive of consulting firm Valens Global, said he helped advise the Trump administration’s DHS framework and was pleased with the Biden White House’s new governmentwide strategy. “It will make the country safer,” he said.
The strategy’s primary focus is to understand and improve the sharing of domestic-terrorism information among government agencies. While information was shared ahead of January’s Capitol riot, the government’s multipoint warning system broke down, The Wall Street Journal earlier found in interviews with current and former officials and a review of internal government documents.
The Biden administration‘s plan also addresses extremism within government ranks, a rising concern as militant and other extremist groups seek out members with law-enforcement and military backgrounds. Earlier this year, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed that the founder of a violent white-supremacist and antigovernment group worked for the department from 2004 through 2006. DHS, which is tasked with preventing terrorist attacks at home, in recent months began an internal review to root out extremism within its ranks.
The administration said part of its strategy is to improve civic education to promote “tolerance and respect for all” and foster programs that “inspire a shared commitment to American democracy.” It also said it wanted to stem the flow of assault-style rifles and other weapons to violent extremists, though it proposed no new legal approach for doing so.
