(The Epoch Times)—FBI Director Kash Patel confirmed on Tuesday that the bureau is investigating more than 1,700 domestic terrorism cases, as he was speaking before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“We have 3500 international terrorism investigations … 1700 domestic terrorism investigations, a large chunk of which are nihilistic violent extremism … those who engage in violent acts motivated by a deep hatred of society,” Patel told lawyers in a prepared statement.
The FBI has experienced a “300% increase in cases opened this year alone versus the same time last year.”
In his remarks, Patel also made reference to the “764” group, a decentralized international network of online predators that has been classified as an extremist group.
His appearance on Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee represents the first oversight hearing of Patel’s tenure amid mounting concerns about political violence inside the United States.
Patel returned to the committee for the first time since his confirmation hearing in January.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), the committee’s chairman, signaled his support for Patel at the outset of the hearing, praising the director for having “begun the important work of returning the FBI to its law enforcement mission.”
“It’s well understood that your predecessor left you an FBI infected with politics,” Grassley stated.
But the panel’s top Democrat, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, described Patel as “arguably the most partisan FBI director ever,” accusing him of already having “inflicted untold damage on the FBI, putting [U.S.] national security and public safety at risk.”
Vice President JD Vance and White House adviser Stephen Miller said on Monday that they plan on launching investigations into left-leaning nongovernmental organizations and other groups, with Miller saying that networks that have organized riots, street violence, and other activities may constitute a “domestic terror movement.”
“The organized doxing campaigns, the organized riots, the organized street violence, the organized campaigns of dehumanization, vilification, posting people’s addresses, combining that with messaging that’s designed to trigger and incite violence, and the actual organized cells that carry out and facilitate the violence. It is a vast domestic terror movement,” Miller said on “The Charlie Kirk Show,” which was hosted by Vance days after Kirk was assassinated last week in Utah.
Patel told Fox News on Monday that DNA on a towel wrapped around a rifle found near where Kirk was assassinated matched that of the 22-year-old accused in the killing. Investigators also have used DNA evidence to link the suspect, Tyler Robinson, with a screwdriver recovered from the rooftop where the fatal shot was fired, he said.
It’s not clear whether Robinson has an attorney. Officials have said that his initial court date will come later on Tuesday.
Officials have said Robinson carried a hatred for Kirk and ascribed to a “leftist ideology” that had grown in recent years. Robinson’s family and friends said he spent large amounts of time scrolling the “dark corners of the internet,” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox said on Sunday.
On Tuesday, Patel noted that Robinson had been communicating with others on Discord and that other people in the Discord chat are being investigated.
The FBI director said the Discord chat with Robinson involved a “lot more than 20” people, responding to a senator’s question.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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