By Allan Lengel
FBI Director Christopher Wray testified Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the growing and challenging problem of domestic terrorism in the U.S., prompting the FBI Agents Association to applaud Senators who called for more resources for the bureau.
“Today’s Senate hearing called attention to the growing number of dangerous threats that FBI Special Agents are working to thwart, and the FBIAA was encouraged to hear some Senators call for providing more resources to the Bureau, including expanding the ranks of Special Agents,” the association’s President Brian O’Hare said in a statement on Tuesday following Wray’s testimony.
“FBI Director Christopher Wray described the rising threat of domestic terrorism to the public and our democracy. Senators on both sides of the aisle urged action to address the threat of domestic extremism,” O’Hare said. “The FBIAA calls on Congress to ensure the Bureau has the tools it needs by immediately passing legislation to attach penalties to the existing definition of domestic terrorism in the federal criminal code. “
Wray defended the FBI’s dissemination of intelligence before the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol and told the committee “we have significantly grown the number of investigations and arrests.”
He warned that domestic terrorism “has been metastasizing around the country for a long time now, and it’s not going away anytime soon.”
