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This is FRESH AIR.
I'm Thierry Gross.
The January 6 attack on the Capitol and the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville are examples of how the threat of domestic terrorism is rising at the end of Trumps presidency.
The Department of Homeland Security warned that domestic violence extremists posed the most persistent and lethal threat to the nation, more so than foreign terrorists.
FBI director Christopher Wray told a congressional committee that the threat was largely from followers of, quote, some kind of white supremacist type ideology.
There are limits to what the FBI can do to infiltrate extremist groups largely based on the First Amendment.
But recently, anti fascist vigilantes have been going undercover to become members of white nationalist groups in order to conduct surveillance and gather information.
They dont inform the FBI or other law enforcement officers about potential threats.
They leak the information.
My guest, David Kirkpatrick recently wrote an in depth piece in the New Yorker investigating how these undercover vigilante spies operate, how theyve crippled several white nationalist groups and led to the discharge of dozens of active duty military personnel.
The story originated when Kirkpatrick was speaking with four FBI officials about the agencys approach to keeping track of the far right and trying to prevent violence and other threats.