US lays out plan to confront white supremacists, militias

Washington, June 15

President Joe Biden's administration on Tuesday unveiled a plan to address the threat of violence posed by white supremacists and militias, five months after members of those groups joined in a deadly attack on the US Capitol.

Top national security threat

• The Biden administration conducted an assessment of domestic terrorism earlier this year that labelled white supremacists and militia groups as top national security threats
• The issue gained urgency after the January 6 assault on the Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump in an attempt to overturn Joe Biden’s election victory

The White House released a 30-page plan for increased information sharing between federal and local officials and social media companies, additional resources to identify and prosecute threats and new deterrents to prevent Americans from joining dangerous groups.

The administration conducted a sweeping assessment earlier this year of domestic terrorism that labeled white supremacists and militia groups as top national security threats. The issue took on new urgency after a Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump who were trying to overturn Biden's election victory. The new strategy stopped short of calling for new laws to fight domestic threats, and officials on Tuesday did not offer many details on specific new resources.

"We concluded that we didn't have the evidentiary basis, yet, to decide whether we wanted to proceed in that direction or whether we have sufficient authority as it currently exists at the federal level," said a senior administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity in advance of the announcement. In a speech on Tuesday, US Attorney General Merrick Garland said in the "coming days and months" he would convene an interagency task force dedicated to combating domestic terrorism. Garland said he has already "begun to reinvigorate" that task force.

Garland said the Jan. 6 attack by Trump supporters had shown white supremacists and militia groups to be the country's greatest domestic security threat. "In the FBI's view, the top domestic violent extremist threat comes from racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists," Garland said. — Reuters

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