US Attorney: Feds Have Opened 300 ‘Domestic Terror’ Investigations Following Riots

[Valin]

The Daily Wire

Emily Zanotti

Aug 5, 2020 

Justice Department officials told a hearing, chaired by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), that investigators have opened around 300 “domestic terror” cases as a result of the riots that arose following national anti-racism and anti-police brutality protests in June and July.

Cruz is hosting a Congressional inquiry into the role of Antifa or other anarchist groups in organizing, directing, and even arming riots that took place in a number of major cities, including in places like Seattle, Washington, and Portland, Oregon, where the unrest continues.

On Tuesday, Erin Nealy Cox, the U.S. Attorney leading Attorney General William Barr’s inquiry into the matter, testified that “the feds have opened hundreds of federal criminal investigations surrounding the violence and rioting since May 28,” according to Fox News.

“They have since May 28 [opened] over 300 domestic terrorist investigations,” Cox said. “That does not include any potential civil rights investigations or violent crime associated with the riots.”

(Snip)

Cruz’s focus was on Portland, which has seen more than 60 straight days of nightly unrest, although the situation has calmed somewhat since the Department of Homeland Security began to pull agents assigned to protect that city’s federal courthouse. Despite claims from Democratic legislators that Portland’s protests were mostly peaceful — a claim not borne out by on-the-ground footage — Cruz and Acting Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Ken Cuccinelli both noted that federal agents, and the courthouse itself, sustained considerable damage.

“Cuccinelli told lawmakers that an estimated 140 federal law enforcement officers guarding a Portland federal courthouse sustained 277 injuries due to the violent and sustained nightly attacks at the building,” according to Fox News.

[Valin]