This afternoon, FBI Director Chris Wray pushed back on similar claims and declared that “Antifa is a real thing” and that the FBI has various cases of self-identified Antifa members involved in criminal conduct.
FBI Director Chris Wray made clear that Antifa is not a made-up, right-wing conspiracy theory and that the FBI has cases involving those connected to it.
Appearing at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing Thursday, Wray explained that while Antifa is not an organization in the traditional sense, it is a movement and there have been suspects who claimed to be a part of it.
“Antifa is a real thing. It’s not a group or an organization. It’s a movement, or an ideology may be one way of thinking of it,” Wray said. “And we have quite a number — and I’ve said this quite consistently since my first time appearing before this committee — we have any number of properly predicated investigations into what we would describe as violent anarchist extremists and some of those individuals self-identify with Antifa.”
Wray’s words were in response to Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., who claimed prominent Democrats have called Antifa a “fantasy.” In July, Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., had dismissed the idea of Antifa violence in Portland as “a myth that’s being spread only in Washington, D.C.”
Later in the hearing, Rep. Donald Payne, D-N.J., asked for clarification about the nature of Antifa, and Wray explained further.
“Antifa is a real thing. It’s not a fiction,” Wray reiterated.” But it is — it’s not an organization or a structure.” He again described it as more of a “movement” but again noted that there have been those who self-identify as being a part of it.
“They say ‘I am Antifa,'” Wray stated.
FBI Director Wray: ‘Antifa is a real thing,’ FBI has cases against people identifying with movement
FBI Director Chris Wray made clear that Antifa is not a made-up, right-wing conspiracy theory and that the FBI has cases involving those connected to it. Appearing at a House Homeland Security Committee hearing Thursday, Wray explained that while Antifa is not an organization in the traditional sense, it is a movement and there have been suspects who claimed to be a part of it.