Trump could use Antifa conspiracy theories to 'investigate his political opponents': Ex-FBI assistant director
According to former FBI assistant director for counterintelligence Frank Figliuzzi, there are far more white supremacists and anti-government agitators infiltrating the peaceful Black Lives Matter protests than Antifa. He fears Trump will use Antifa as an excuse to investigate his political opponents.
Speaking to MSNBC on Sunday evening, Figliuzzi told host Brian Williams that his sources in law enforcement are telling him that President Donald Trump doesn't have his facts straight on Antifa.
"We're seeing components of legitimate frustrated protesters responding to Mr. Floyd's demise and others," explained Figliuzzi. "Then we are seeing people who are exploiting this for their own purposes, and some of them are more than just opportunistic criminals. Some of them are organized, and some of them have diverse agendas but are coming together to wreak havoc. And I think what we need to pay attention to here is what we have evidence of, what we don't have evidence of, and what we're hearing from the White House and the attorney general."
He explained that in the last 24 hours, Americans learned that Attorney General Bill Barr was blaming Antifa's violence, the anti-fascist, anti-Nazi philosophy.
"He did not demonstrate any evidence of that," Figliuzzi said of Barr. "And according to all reports and my sources across all law enforcement, there is a minimal presence of Antifa, but a far more disturbing presence of right-wing race-based hate groups, such as the Boogaloo Boys who think there will be a race-based civil war coming. There is also, perhaps even more disturbing than that, if that's possible, I have multiple sources telling me that the global anarchy movement is beginning to become present and insert themselves in cities around America in these protests."
"But today we heard the president of the United States -- we saw the president tweet, 'we're going to declare Antifa a domestic terrorism organization,'" continued Figliuzzi. "No mention of the other groups. And by the way, no mention that he has no authority nor any legal process to name a U.S. group or organization a terror organization. We don't even have a domestic terrorism law in the United States yet, let alone a process to designate a group. And I'll go a step further. Antifa is not a recognized group or organization in the sense of a centralized headquarters, leadership. They are a diverse network. They are not about centralization. And what I fear, Brian, tonight is that this takes us one step closer to a president who simply wants to allow feds to investigate his political opponents. That's where we're headed."
Watch the interview below: