Domestic terrorism perpetrated by white supremacists is on the rise, the FBI told CNN on Thursday.
An unnamed senior FBI counterterrorism official told CNN that while terror threats abroad have remained the same, the agency is now dealing with an increase in domestic terror cases in recent months.
The FBI did not tell CNN exactly how many white supremacist-tied terror cases there are. CNN noted that First Amendment protections can complicate crackdowns on domestic terrorism, and there is no law that directly targets domestic terrorism in the U.S.
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump’s administration has hampered the government’s efforts to fight domestic terrorism. The Department of Homeland Security shut down an intel group dedicated to analyzing homegrown terrorists in April, and the administration refused to renew funding for the DHS’s anti-domestic terror program last year.
