Newly declassified intelligence documents reveal that the Biden administration significantly inflated domestic terrorism statistics by classifying January 6 Capitol riot cases as domestic terrorism, despite the event resulting in no fatalities caused by rioters.

According to Just The News, recently released intelligence records show that January 6-related cases accounted for the vast majority of the administration's reported rise in domestic terrorism threats.

A declassified "Special Analysis" report from February 2022 reveals that 61 percent of all FBI domestic terrorism investigations at that time were related to the Capitol riot, and 78 percent of domestic terrorism arrests in 2021 stemmed from that single event on January 6, 2021.

Whistleblowers' claims validated

FBI whistleblowers had previously come forward alleging that the Bureau was artificially inflating domestic terrorism numbers by using January 6-related cases. These claims appear to have been validated by the recently declassified internal analysis from the FBI, DHS, and National Counterterrorism Center.

Special Agent Stephen Friend told House investigators that "the manipulative case file practice creates false and misleading crime statistics" because "instead of hundreds of investigations stemming from a single black swan incident at the Capitol, FBI and Justice Department officials point to significant increases in domestic violent extremism and terrorism around the United States."

FBI Special Agent Garret O'Boyle claimed that the FBI classified "every single Jan. 6 case... as a domestic terrorism case," further supporting allegations that the Biden administration was distorting statistics.

Concealed statistical manipulation

The Biden administration regularly cited the dramatic increase in domestic terrorism cases without disclosing that the majority were related to a single event. FBI Director Christopher Wray repeatedly testified to Congress about doubled domestic terrorism investigations since spring 2020 without revealing the January 6 connection.

In August 2022, Wray told Congress, "The number of FBI investigations of suspected DVEs has more than doubled since the spring of 2020." He made similar statements in April 2023, July 2023, and December 2023, consistently failing to clarify that most cases stemmed from the Capitol riot.

Then-DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas echoed these claims in November 2023, stating that "the number of FBI domestic terrorism investigations has more than doubled since the spring of 2020." The public was never informed that without January 6 cases, domestic terrorism figures would have actually decreased compared to 2020.

Political motivations questioned

The administration used the inflated statistics to justify expanded federal law enforcement powers and a sweeping new domestic terrorism strategy. Just days after Biden's inauguration, then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki announced a review of the alleged rising domestic terrorism threat, citing January 6 as her only example.

In June 2021, the White House released its "National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism," which repeatedly cited January 6 as justification for expanded powers. The strategy equated the Capitol riot with deadly terrorist attacks like the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, despite the fact that unlike these other incidents, the January 6 rioters did not kill anyone.

Then-Attorney General Merrick Garland declared in January 2022 that pursuing January 6 cases was the Justice Department's highest priority, calling it "one of the largest, most complex, and most resource-intensive investigations in our history." That same month, the DOJ announced the creation of a new "domestic terrorism unit."

Deceptive data practices exposed

The declassified report confirms that without January 6 cases, domestic terrorism figures would have actually decreased in 2021 compared to 2020. While the FBI arrested approximately 180 domestic terrorism subjects in 2020, it arrested around 800 in 2021 – with 78% of those arrests related to January 6.

A February 2023 report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) noted that the Justice Department's data did not explicitly state which cases were tied to January 6, making it impossible to determine the true nature of the alleged increase in domestic terrorism.

The House Judiciary Committee and Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government released a May 2023 report detailing whistleblower claims that "the FBI pressured agents to reclassify cases as domestic violent extremism (DVE), and even manufactured DVE cases where they may not otherwise exist while manipulating its case categorization system to feign a national problem."