DOJ lays out plan to tackle white supremacist violence
In a speech on Tuesday, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said in the "coming days and months" he would convene an interagency task force dedicated to combating domestic terrorism.
Garland said he has already "begun to reinvigorate" that task force.
Garland said the Jan. 6 attack by Trump supporters had shown white supremacists and militia groups to be the country's greatest domestic security threat.
"In the FBI's view, the top domestic violent extremist threat comes from racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists, specifically those who advocated for the superiority of the white race," Garland said.
The Biden administration conducted a sweeping assessment earlier this year of domestic terrorism that labeled white supremacists and militia groups as top national security threats.
The issue took on new urgency after a Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump who were trying to overturn Biden's election victory.
In his budget proposal released last month, Biden, who succeeded Trump on Jan. 20, sought $100 million in additional funding to train and hire analysts and prosecutors to disrupt and deter terrorist activity.
