Bloomberg update: Domestic Terrorism Law Being Weighed by Justice Department
[Bloomberg] The Justice Department is "actively considering" whether to seek a new law that would let prosecutors bring specific charges for plotting and carrying out acts of domestic terrorism, a senior department official said.
"One of the things we’re looking at is would we need new authorities," Brad Wiegmann, deputy assistant attorney general for the department’s national security division, said during a House hearing Thursday.
Wiegmann said the department has been successful using existing laws to fight domestic terrorism, such as bringing charges for offenses involving violations of weapons or explosives laws, hate crimes and arson. He said more than 430 arrests have been made in connection with the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol. And in the end about 410 will be set free with time served for minor misdemeanors, while most of the remainder will turn out to be Antifa/BLM agitators pretending to be conservatives. | The attack was carried out by extremist supporters of then-President Donald Trump.
The FBI has warned that domestic violent extremists pose a heightened threat for carrying out attacks in the U.S. in the near future, with white supremacists being the most lethal threat.
"The question we’re really wrestling with is: Are there gaps?" Wiegmann told a House Appropriations subcommittee. "Is there some type of conduct that we can envision that we can’t cover or would it be an otherwise benefit in having something else other than what we’re having now?"
Posted by: Besoeker 2021-05-06 |