Contrary to Donald Trump’s claim that Antifa (anti-fascists) are to blame for the violence and looting occurring during mass protests across the country, the FBI says that there is “no intelligence” to back up that accusation.
Trump took to Twitter to scapegoat Antifa as protests against racial injustice and police brutality rock the nation, even declaring them to be terrorists and threatening to deploy the military to hunt them down.
Attorney General Bill Barr soon thereafter repeated Trump’s claim by stating that the violence and rioting were “instigated and carried out by Antifa.”
The problem is, Trump and Barr have no evidence tying violence and rioting to anti-fascists, and an FBI report totally contradicts them.
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According to The Nation:
The FBI report, however, states that ‘based on CHS [Confidential Human Source] canvassing, open source/social media partner engagement, and liaison, FBI WFO has no intelligence indicating Antifa involvement/presence.’ The statement followed a list of violent acts like throwing bricks at police and the discovery of a backpack containing explosive materials, which were flagged by the FBI under a ‘Key Updates’ section of the report. The FBI has been issuing such reports daily since the weekend, according to a Bureau source, who added that none of these documents contained any evidence of antifa violence.”
On the other hand, the report does warn of provocation and violence by right-wing extremists eager to take advantage of the protests.
The report did warn that individuals from a far-right social media group had ‘called for far-right provocateurs to attack federal agents, use automatic weapons against protesters.'”
Multiple news reports support the FBI on this, as out-of-state right-wingers have flowed into states like Minnesota to instigate riots in an effort to make ordinary protesters — but specifically black people — look bad. It makes sense that Trump would want to cover for his white supremacist and neo-Nazi supporters by blaming the people who directly oppose them. Only it didn’t work.
Once again, Trump and his lapdogs have been caught lying and scapegoating to distract the American people.
Featured image via screen capture
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