Lawmakers demand answers on Trump scuttling of domestic terrorism programs

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the FBI are being pressed to explain numerous cuts to programs focused on combating domestic terrorism.

Letters from Democrats in both chambers this week have asked why DHS dismantled a national database used to track domestic terrorism and hate crimes.

Meanwhile, the FBI has reassigned staff from its Domestic Terrorism Operations Section.

“As you know, data and intelligence should drive policy decisions, and the data and intelligence from your agencies is clear – domestic terrorism is a grave threat to Americans’ safety. Yet, your policy decisions indicate that you have decided to ignore the threat – risking American lives – in fear of running afoul of President Trump’s executive orders to disregard racism and racial inequities in America, which experts have warned fuel domestic terrorism,” Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) wrote in a letter obtained by The Hill.

“Not only do these policy decisions make no sense given the threat picture, but some of them directly conflict with each other and the Trump Administration’s stated priorities,” he added, noting the database also tracks antisemitic hate crimes, among other forms of domestic terrorism.

The letter also asks whether the FBI is planning to “deprioritize domestic terrorism as an intelligence topic.”

For the most recent year on record, the database tracked more than 1,800 domestic terrorism incidents, with Thompson noting that the majority were disrupted. The database tracked multiple types of extremism and ideologies.

In the Senate, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) on Tuesday similarly asked about the database as well as the reassignments of FBI staff.

“Taken together, these moves represent a broad institutional pullback from confronting the full scope of domestic terrorism threats at a time when experts continue to warn about intensifying danger, and the data points to the rising threat of attacks motivated by anti-government ideologies,” he wrote.

Trump administration officials have spent ample time in recent weeks discussing domestic terrorism, but those comments have been entirely focused on a rash of vandalism targeting Tesla cars and dealerships.

“Let this be a warning: if you join this wave of domestic terrorism against Tesla properties, the Department of Justice will put you behind bars,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said last month in announcing charges against three individuals charged in connection with throwing molotov cocktails at Tesla cars and charging stations.

Both letters ask a series of questions of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel, from how many FBI staff have been reassigned to what DHS plans to do with the partial data already collected for the Terrorism and Targeted Violence database and how they will track domestic terrorism going forward.