FBI Director Christopher Wray showed the agency’s commitment to both-sidesing domestic terrorism when he testified before the House Judiciary Committee last week. According to Wray, one domestic terrorist threat comes from “abortion violent extremism”—and that doesn’t just mean clinic bombings or doctor assassinations. No, Wray described it as including “people on either side of that issue who commit violence on behalf of different views on that topic.”
Challenged by Rep. Karen Bass, Wray insisted, “Well, we've actually had a variety of kinds of violence under that, believe it or not.” Actually … don’t believe it. It’s not true.
Wray’s testimony isn’t the first time the FBI has tried to pass off abortion violent extremism as something both sides do, The Daily Beast reports. A 2017 counterterrorism guide, it reported, “claimed that these extremists ‘believe it is their moral duty to protect those who provide or receive abortion services’—though even this document noted that only one ‘pro-choice extremist’ had ever been prosecuted.” That single prosecution was not for a killing or bombing. It was for an online threat.
By contrast, there’s a long list of anti-abortion violence that includes multiple murders—most recently, three people killed and several more injured in Colorado Springs in 2015—attempted murders, bombings, acts of arson, and vandalism. But according to the FBI, both sides do it. Just as, according to Donald Trump, there were “very fine people on both sides” when neo-Nazis rallied in Charlottesville.
Speaking of Charlottesville, Wray did say that the top form of domestic terrorism is racially or ethnically motivated, and that it’s a high priority. “We elevated to the top-level priority racially motivated violent extremism so it's on the same footing in terms of our national threat banding as ISIS and homegrown violent extremism,” he said.