FBI Won’t Deliver Report on White-Supremacist Terror Threat Until After Election

Though draft reports from the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Bureau of Investigation assert that white-supremacist violence is the greatest terror threat facing the nation and that this election period is a “potential flashpoint” for “violent extremist” threats from a far-right militia that includes white supremacists, the FBI is four months late on delivering its research on domestic terrorism. According to The Daily Beast, the bureau will not release its report until after the election.

Such a long delay is obviously troubling for several reasons. Research on far-right violence related to the election won’t be helpful for lawmakers and law enforcement if it comes after the threat has passed. And like so many other reports filed during this administration, there is the concern that it may be delayed so as not to upset the president.

“This report probably would not be viewed favorably by this administration. That, I think, precipitates the report not being released by November 3,” Mississippi representative Bennie Thompson told The Daily Beast. Thompson, a Democrat and the chair of the House Homeland Security Committee, added that he “would hate to think that they are reacting to President Trump’s machinations about his dislike for senior leadership in the FBI.”

The FBI claims its report on domestic terrorism, which was expected to be delivered in June, has been delayed due to “limitations caused by COVID-19.” As The Daily Beast notes, the publication of the research is required by law:

The most recent National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) requires the FBI, in accord with Department of Homeland Security and consultation with the Office of Director of National Intelligence, specify not only known acts of domestic terrorism, but “ideologies relating to domestic terrorism,” and what the FBI and its partners are doing to combat it all …

It’s also supposed to detail “the necessity of changing authorities, roles, resources or responsibilities within the Federal Government to more effectively prevent and counter domestic terrorism activities.”