In a Washington Post report on how the FBI is dealing with homegrown terrorism, a former high-ranking official admitted that agents are reluctant to follow up on leads on white nationalists who may be plotting mayhem because of fears of how Donald Trump and his base might react.
Noting that "Between October and June, there were about 100 arrests of domestic terrorism suspects — and if that trend continues, the total for 2019 would outpace the prior year, when there were about 120 such cases. The year before that, about 150 domestic terrorism suspects were arrested," the Post states, before saying that is just the tip of the iceberg.
According to Dave Gomez, an ex-FBI supervisor who oversaw terrorism cases, agents want nothing to do with the heat they might receive for digging deepr into homegrown threats in Trump country.
“I believe [FBI director] Christopher A. Wray is an honorable man, but I think in many ways the FBI is hamstrung in trying to investigate the white supremacist movement like the old FBI would,” Gomez said. “There’s some reluctance among agents to bring forth an investigation that targets what the president perceives as his base. It’s a no-win situation for the FBI agent or supervisor.”
Gomez also admitted, "I don’t think there’s any faith by the FBI right now that the Justice Department is an independent law enforcement organization, I think the FBI is up to the challenge of investigating white nationalism and white supremacy as a domestic terrorism threat, they just have to be allowed to do it.”
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