(Ken Silva, Headline USA) Newsweek published a bombshell report Wednesday, confirming that the Justice Department is targeting Donald Trump supporters, and that the FBI is infiltrating MAGA groups in anticipation of the 2024 presidential election.
Newsweek’s report stated what many have suspected since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021: that a politicized DOJ is specifically targeting Trump supporters.
Citing classified information and more than 12 current or former government officials, Newsweek said the FBI changed its internal definition of anti-government extremism from “furtherance of ideological agendas” to “furtherance of political and/or social agendas.”
“It was a subtle change, little noticed, but a gigantic departure for the Bureau. Trump and his army of supporters were acknowledged as a distinct category of domestic violent extremists, even as the FBI was saying publicly that political views were never part of its criteria to investigate or prevent domestic terrorism,” Newsweek explained.
“Where the FBI sees threats is also plain from the way it categorizes them—a system which on the surface is designed to appear nonpartisan. This shifted subtly days after the events of January 6.”
While many already suspected that the DOJ was targeting Trump supporters—as evidenced by Attorney General Merrick Garland’s memo directing investigators to target parents protesting at school boards—the Newsweek disclosed another startling fact: The FBI is infiltrating MAGA groups ahead of the 2024 election.
“Experts agree that as the 2024 election approaches, there will be greater pressure to prevent law-breaking, one that necessitates infiltration of political circles and other controversial government activity,” the article said—not elaborating on what that “other controversial government activity” might consist of.
Newsweek did warn that the DOJ’s tactics could backfire. The article quoted terrorism researcher Brian Michael Jenkins, who questioned whether conceiving of disgruntled Americans as terrorists is even a helpful exercise.
“These are not people who are going underground,” he said. “This is not the ’60s or ’70s, when radical groups, even the civil rights and peace movements, were driven to violence.”
The DOJ’s tactics were even criticized by an anonymous official who works for Biden’s Office of the Director of National Intelligence.
“So we have the president increasing his own inflammatory rhetoric which leads Donald Trump and the Republicans to do the same, which influences the news media, which influences the rhetoric,” he said. “The FBI? It’s just in the middle of this mess, probably heading for trouble but mostly left out on a limb by the anger and indifference of the American public.”
Ken Silva is a staff writer at Headline USA. Follow him at twitter.com/jd_cashless.
