March 11 (UPI) — Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., has demanded the FBI brief Congress on what it is doing to address White supremacists infiltrating law enforcement agencies across the country after several active and retired personnel were charged with participating in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
Raskin, the chairman of the House oversight and reform committee, said Wednesday he sent the letter a day prior to FBI Director Christopher Wray, calling for a member briefing to be held no later than March 26.
“The shocking participation of law enforcement personnel in the Jan. 6 domestic terrorist attack against Congress and our Capitol Police means that the Bureau must level with the American public about the steps it is taking to combat the infiltration of law enforcement departments by White supremacists,” he wrote.
Hundreds of people have been charged in connection to the insurrection attempt on Jan. 6 by supporters of then-President Donald Trump who stormed the Capitol building to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential election win. At least five people died as a result.
Among those arrested include at least 18 former and current police officers, firefighters and military service members, Raskin said.
In the letter, Raskin said the FBI has repeatedly denied the significance of the threat posed by White supremacists donning uniforms, stating it rejected his invitation to testify last year at a hearing on the subject and it told the subcommittee that there was no evidence to support the claim.
The letter was sent days after ABC News reported that a confidential intelligence assessment from the FBI San Antonio division had determined that White supremacists would “very likely” seek affiliation with military and law enforcement to further their their ideology.
Raskin pointed to this report and to a 2006 FBI threat assessment that said the presence of White supremacists in law enforcement “is a concern” as contradicting the FBI’s recent claims to the subcommittee that such infiltration is only a hypothetical problem.
Proof that the threat is real materialized on Jan. 6, he said, when off-duty law enforcement breached the Capitol.
“Given the FBI’s refusal just last year to admit that extremist police officers posed a serious threat to our nation’s security, I am now concerned that the bureau lacks an adequate strategy to respond to this clear and present danger to public safety,” he said.
