Senate Republican calls out Trump's DOJ for not responding to his domestic terrorism questions
Senate Republican calls out Trumps DOJ for not responding to his domestic terrorism questions
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) told Fox News that both the Justice Department and FBI have failed to address white supremacist extremism.
Josh Israel
Aug 7, 2019, 2:05 pm
Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, is typically a loyal ally of President Donald Trump and his administration. But
on Wednesday, he went on Fox News and scolded Trumps Justice Department and FBI for failing to provide even basic information about a major domestic terrorism threat.
In early May, Johnson and the committees top Democrat Sen. Gary Peters (D-MI) authored bipartisan letters that were sent to Kevin McAleenan, the acting secretary of Homeland Security, Attorney General William Barr, and FBI Director Christopher Wray. These letters asked for information about domestic terrorism and how each is addressing it. DHS responded, but four months later, the Justice Department and the FBI which operates within the DOJ have not.
In a new letter on Monday, Johnson and Peters noted that there have been several domestic terrorism attacks since their first letter. Since the date of our request, there have been numerous mass attacks, including Virginia Beach, VA; Gilroy, CA; El, Paso, TX; and Dayton, OH
These continued mass attacks make it clear that the federal government has more work to do in preventing domestic terrorism.
On Tuesday, Johnson took the issue directly to the Trump administration by raising it on Fox News.
On May 8th, ranking member Sen. Peters and I sent a letter to the Department of Justice and the FBI, asking them how do they keep track of these domestic terrorist attacks? What kind of resources do they have and what are they devoting to different aspects of this? We got a response from DHS. We havent got a response from the FBI or attorney general, he complained.
Monday, we asked them to respond. Im not sure youll ever have enough resources in terms of what people will be requesting. This is a serious issue, though. We expect answers out of the FBI director and the attorney general.
more...
https://thinkprogress.org/republican-senate-chairman-slams-trumps-doj-over-domestic-terrorism-non-response-b903f3de5f75/