Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) urged the director of the FBI on Tuesday to investigate the left-wing Antifa group over a pattern of "masked anonymous violent terrorism."
ICYMI at today's @senjudiciary hearing: I urged FBI Director Wray to open a RICO investigation into Antifa. pic.twitter.com/zlkTcKW0kb— Senator Ted Cruz (@SenTedCruz) July 23, 2019
Cruz asked FBI Director Christopher Wray whether the FBI was already investigating the group during a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"The group that has called itself Antifa, which ironically is short for anti-fascism, and yet they engage in the conduct of fascists, they engage in violent protests," said Cruz.
"Masked men and women engaging in physical violence, we saw recently the Rose City chapter of Antifa in Portland, Oregon, that was assaulting citizens, disrupting traffic, violently assaulted one journalist so severely that he was hospitalized for brain hemorrhage," he added.
"Likewise this weekend, a Mr. Willem Van Spronsen, another Antifa terrorist, attacked a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement center in Tacoma, Washington, igniting a vehicle and attempting to ignite a propane tank," Cruz continued.
"I am concerned that these are not isolated instances, but rather that this is a pattern, an organization that has engaged in masked anonymous violent terrorism," he added. "To what extent is the FBI concerned about the threat of violent activity from an organization like Antifa?"
Wray responded that the FBI was looking into criminal activity by "anarchistic extremists," some of whom are involved with the Antifa ideology.
Cruz went on to say that the laws which empowered the FBI to investigate groups like the Ku Klux Klan and organized mob crime should be used to probe criminal activity from members of Antifa.
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