US Justice Department to form new domestic terrorism unit

The Department of Justice’s top national security official has said that the it will launch a new unit centred on tackling the rising challenge of domestic terrorism.

Following the one-year anniversary of the 6 January assault on the U.S. Capitol, Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen told the Senate Judiciary Committee saying that the threat posed by domestic terrorism is on the rise’.

Olsen said that the number of FBI investigations of suspected violent extremists has more than doubled since the spring of 2020, with officials at the Department of Justice saying that they have witnessed a mounting threat from offenders motivated by both racial animus and anti-government ideologies.

Olsen said that the Department of Justice's fledgling unit would ‘augment’ the agency's existing approach, with dedicated attorneys focusing on the domestic terrorism threat, although further details were not forthcoming.