Speaking exclusively to Fox News’ Bret Baier on Monday outside the Department of Justice, Attorney General Bill Barr confirmed that “focused investigations” are underway that “relate to Antifa,” the far-left group that President Trump has sought to designate as a terrorist organization.
“It’s a very loosely organized group, and they have an unusual system of communication and organization,” Barr said. “There are people who can be characterized as leaders in any given situation.”
Also in the wide-ranging interview, Barr harshly criticized efforts to defund police departments, argued that some jurisdictions had gone too far in their coronavirus lockdown restrictions, and defended the U.S. Park Police’s decision to clear Lafayette Park ahead of a visit by the President — a move that came, Barr told Baier, after the attorney general himself was targeted with rocks and other projectiles, Fox News informs.
Determining who is behind the protests has become a top priority for the DOJ, and a political football in the meantime. Former national security adviser Susan Rice has claimed “the Russians” could be involved; Minnesota officials have blamed out-of-state white supremacists, despite evidence showing that arrested individuals are overwhelmingly local.
Fox News reported last week that federal law enforcement officials are probing whether “criminal actors” are coordinating violent activities during protests over the in-custody death of George Floyd, and are looking into reports that “rocks and bricks” have been dropped off to throw at police.
“There appear to be sources of funding, and we are looking into the sources of funding,” Barr said. “And, you know, there is clearly some high degree of organization involved at some of these events and and coordinated tactics that we’re seeing. And we’re looking into that as well. And some of it relates to an Antifa. Some of it relates to groups that act very much like Antifa. As I said, there’s a witches’ brew of extremist groups that are trying to exploit this situation on all sides.”
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