The FBI has cut staffing in an office that focused on domestic terrorism and stopped using a tool to track those investigations, Reuters reported, citing sources familiar with the issue.
Why It Matters
The FBI ramped up spending in recent years, tripling the number of domestic terror investigations over just a few years. Around 70 percent of the open cases in 2022 focused on “civil unrest” and anti-government activity.
The bureau also defined all violent acts (and threats of violence) with a political motive to be terrorism, a senior government official previously explained to Newsweek at the time—noting that not all acts of extremism are considered terrorism.
“If an act is focused on the government, it’s terrorism,” the source said. “But if extremism is focused on private individuals or institutions, it’s considered just a crime or classified as a hate crime.” The source was granted anonymity to speak about classified matters.
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What To Know
FBI leadership recently transferred agents and intelligence analysts from its Domestic Terrorism Operations Section, which assists with investigations out of the bureau’s 55 field offices and provides information on domestic threats, sources told Reuters.
Bureau Director Kash Patel has repeatedly pledged to streamline the FBI’s operations: He initiated an overhaul as soon as he assumed his role, ordering up to 1,000 employees to relocate to field offices around the country and 500 to shift to an FBI field office in Huntsville, Alabama.
But the newest changes to the office concerning domestic terrorism cases will reduce the FBI’s ability to monitor threats posed by white supremacists and militia groups, some of Reuters sources said—and it could limit the bureau’s ability to react to plots by those groups. Some of those resources have pivoted to helping the administration’s crackdown on immigration, according to Reuters.
Two of the sources said that the office had stopped tagging investigations with a connection to domestic terrorism, which will limit the ability to track developing plots and highlighting trends ahead of potential incidents.
The changes occur even as President Donald Trump said he would consider protesters and vandals who have attacked Tesla vehicles as domestic terrorists, saying their attacks are politically motivated and, therefore, fall within the FBI definition.
Trump in posts on Truth Social has threatened Tesla vandals with “jail for up to twenty years, and that includes the funders,” continuing his allegations that all protests against Republicans and his administration in recent months are the work of professional activists and rich backers.
What People Are Saying
An FBI spokesperson told Newsweek in an emailed statement: “The FBI is committed to protecting the U.S. from many threats including terrorism, violent crime, drug trafficking, and cyberattacks. We will continue to work closely with our law enforcement partners here in the U.S. and internationally to detect and counter potential dangers. All our work is focused on providing safer communities for our citizens every day.”
Trump, on Truth Social this month: “To Republicans, Conservatives, and all great Americans, Elon Musk is ‘putting it on the line’ in order to help our Nation, and he is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! But the Radical Left Lunatics, as they often do, are trying to illegally and collusively boycott Tesla, one of the World’s great automakers, and Elon’s ‘baby,’ in order to attack and do harm to Elon, and everything he stands for. They tried to do it to me at the 2024 Presidential Ballot Box, but how did that work out? In any event, I’m going to buy a brand new Tesla tomorrow morning as a show of confidence and support for Elon Musk, a truly great American. Why should he be punished for putting his tremendous skills to work in order to help MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN???”
What Happens Next
The sources were unclear about the full extent of changes, with some saying just over a dozen people had been reassigned, while another source said senior officials have discussed outright disbanding the office, with no clear timeline for a decision.