Dylann Roof
A week after FBI Director James Comey stated that he didn't believe the Charleston murder of nine African Americans inside of Emanuel AME Church
was a form of domestic terrorism, the spokesperson for the
FBI has officially revisited the issue.
FBI Spokesman Paul Bresson told MSNBC that depending on the evidence uncovered by federal investigators, the agency would be open to pursuing domestic terrorism charges, as opposed to just the hate crime charges as originally suggested.
“Both hate crime and domestic terrorism investigations afford investigators the same set of tools and techniques,” Bresson said Wednesday. “Any eventual federal charges will be determined by the facts at the conclusion of the investigation, and are not influenced by how the investigation is initially opened.”
Furthermore, U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch
has weighed in:
On Friday, a spokesperson for Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the DOJ was investigating the shooting as both “a hate crime and as an act of domestic terrorism.” Ultimately, it is up to Justice Department prosecutors to decide what federal charges to bring. The FBI also struck that note earlier this week, telling The Daily Beast its goal was to “follow the facts and learn more about the incident itself and what was behind it.”
Today’s FBI statement goes a bit further, directly acknowledging the potential case for applying the model of “domestic terrorism investigations” to the Charleston attack.
Let's continue our push for justice in this awful crime.