FBI Director Christopher Wray appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee at the Capitol on March 2
FBI Director Chris Wray on Tuesday (March 2) denounced the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol as “domestic terrorism.
Wray has kept a low profile since the Capitol attack. Although he said he briefed members of Congress privately and shared information with local law enforcement, Tuesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing was his first public appearance before Congress since the presidential election in November.
At the congressional hearing, he announced on the one hand that the FBI would hear the riot at the U.S. Capitol as “domestic terrorism,” while also saying that the FBI had no verifiable reports of a threat to attack the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
The director of the Capitol Police said the FBI’s Jan. 5 report was given to police investigators and the intelligence community, but no instructions were given.
So far, the FBI and other law enforcement agencies have made 300 arrests, according to Ray. He added that more and more people are being charged with crimes related to the Capitol incident almost every day.
It’s “a top priority, and still is for the FBI,” Ray said, adding that domestic terrorism rivals al-Qaida and ISIS terrorist groups. He also cited what he called “violent militia extremism” and “racially motivated violent extremism,” but then added that the FBI does not consider the right-wing Proud Boys to be a domestic terrorist group.
Protests related to the Jan. 6 protests resulted in several deaths, including Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, who died the day after the demonstrations. Early reports in The New York Times and other media outlets said the man was killed by a Trump supporter armed with a fire extinguisher, but similar reports were later revised or retracted. Sinik’s mother told news outlets last month that she believes he may have died of a stroke.
Ray told senators that the FBI has not yet determined the cause of Sinick’s death in its investigation.
On whether a foreign power was involved in the event, Ray told senators, “It’s possible, but we haven’t seen any evidence of that.”
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