How the Federal Government Investigates and Prosecutes Domestic Terrorism
The J. Edgar Hoover F.B.I. Building, headquarters of the FBI, in Washington, D.C. (Susan Melkisethian, https://tinyurl.com/1c5gb2ve; CC BY-NC-ND 2.0, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/)
In the aftermath of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, many politicians, including President Biden, and public commentators called for renewed efforts by the federal government to combat domestic terrorism. That reaction followed a pattern over recent years in which mass shootings and other violent attacks like those in El Paso, Texas; Gilroy, California; and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania have spurred demands for an increased federal focus on domestic terrorism. Some lawmakers and experts have urged Congress to pass a domestic terrorism statute, while others have argued that the government already has sufficient power to pursue such cases but, rather, that it lacks the coordination and political impetus to properl