Former Assistant Director of the FBI Chris Swecker is concerned about the intentions of the justice-department” target=”_blank”>Justice Department’s<.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily called for given that they already have a national security division, as does the FBI, and another section that covers counterterrorism,” Swecker told FOX News Radio’s Jessica Rosenthal on “The Fox News Rundown Podcast” Wednesday.
“I just hope it’s not just focused on right-wing extremism,” he added.
Swecker said determining whether the new unit is a good use of time and resources depends on how the department plans to use it. Domestic terrorism, he said, is an area that’s been “closely monitored” since the 1970s when the Church Committee looked into intelligence abuses and installed safeguards in the wake of their findings.
President Biden listens as Vice President Kamala Harris speaks from Statuary Hall at the U.S. Capitol to mark one year since the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol by supporters loyal to then-President Donald Trump, Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022, in Washington. (Drew Angerer/Pool via AP)
(Drew Angerer/Pool via AP)
The former FBI official worried that the DOJ’s new venture could stumble into some tricky territory.
“This is an area that’s fraught with First Amendment concerns,” Swecker said. “It’s very easy to slip across that line and start investigating ideology and thoughts and not just violent behavior and the type of conduct and activity that steps over the line.”
The unit, he asserted, was “driven” by the Jan. 6 Capitol riots.
“I think that is by far what’s responsible for the spike in the caseload in domestic terrorism or what they call domestic violent extremist activities,” he said.
A large group of police arrive at the Capitol, Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022, in Washington. President Biden and members of Congress are marking one year since the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol insurrection. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Swecker also cited the internet as a contributor to the caseload, as the FBI is often “looking at chatter” online.
GOP SENATORS PUSH BACK AS DOJ ROLLS OUT EXPANDED DOMESTIC TERRORISM UNIT DUE TO JAN. 6 RIOT
Republican U.S. Senators sounded off on the new Justice Department unit at a hearing on Tuesday, grilling Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen on its motives. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., for instance, wondered if the DOJ’s resources would be better used investigating international terrorism.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-SC, questions U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing examining the Department of Justice on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., Oct. 27, 2021. Tasos Katopodis/Pool via REUTERS
(Tasos Katopodis/Pool via REUTERS)
“How many people have come across our southern border from special interest countries?” Graham asked.
“It’s been three to four thousand,” Graham later said. “We’ve had dozens of people on the terrorism watch list come across the southern border. Here’s some advice – if you need more resources, you’ll get them from me, but if I were you, I’d go to the border and check out what’s going on, because it’s just a matter of time, in my humble opinion, that the broken southern border is going to be an entryway for international terrorists who are going to come here and kill a lot of Americans if we don’t change the policy.”
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Swecker agreed with Graham’s conclusion, saying Wednesday that international terrorism, like threats posed by North Korea and Iran, is “by far” a greater threat than what the new DOJ unit intends to investigate.
“I think most counterterrorism experts would tell you that,” he added.
Fox News’s Timothy H.J. Nerozzi contributed to this report.
