FBI Chief: Agency Has 1,000 Open Domestic Terrorism Investigations

The FBI has about 1,000 active investigations into potential domestic terrorists, which includes people linked to white nationalism, extremist white supremacy and environmental movements, the agency’s Director Christopher Wray told Congress during his first testimony as the agency’s chief.

Speaking to the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday, Wray said domestic terrorism is a “very serious” issue that the agency spends “a lot of our time focused on,” ABC reports. “We have about 1,000 open domestic-terrorism investigations as we speak,” he said, a figure that is in addition to about the same number of probes into “homegrown violent extremists,” like those inspired by ISIS.

Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill said attacks by white supremacists and anti-government are “almost triple” those carried out by people inspired or tied to international terrorist organizations.

“[Americans] would assume that the threat from ISIS influence is much greater, and the reality and the facts don’t support that,” she said, ABC reports.

There are a large “number of agents who are working very, very hard” against the threat of domestic terrorism, Wray said.