By Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The FBI has been paying closer attention to ‘sovereign citizen’ extremists around the country out of concerns that they will react violently when they interact with government officials.
Sovereign citizens are people who reject their U.S. citizenship and don’t recognize government authority, like laws and taxes. In 2009, the FBI started paying closer attention to the movement, which previously had been grouped with the militia movements in the bureau’s domestic counterterrorism operations. Many people who claim to be followers of this movement are involved in white collar crimes like tax evasion schemes and making fraudulent documents, the FBI said.
“We started to notice a heightened potential for violence,” said Stuart McArthur, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division.
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