A study citing white supremacy and right-wing ideology as the most common principles driving extremist violence in the United States has been removed from the Department of Justice website. The removal comes as the White House tries to blame leftists for political violence and the administration continues efforts to whitewash American history and downplay racism.
Study detailing the prevalence of violence by ‘far-right extremists’ removed from the DOJ website
Journalist Jason Paladino first noted that a study by the National Institute of Justice titled “What NIJ Research Tells Us About Domestic Terrorism” had been removed from the U.S. Department of Justice’s website. In the study, NIJ — a research branch of the Justice Department — noted, “Since 1990, far-right extremists have committed far more ideologically motivated homicides than far-left or radical Islamist extremists, including 227 events that took more than 520 lives. In this same period, far-left extremists committed 42 ideologically motivated attacks that took 78 lives.” The study, available to read through the Internet Archive, notes that “no single profile accurately captures the characteristics of the individuals who commit extremist and hate crimes” and looks at a variety of factors, including military experience, the use of the internet to spread extremism, and white supremacy among other ideologies associated with domestic terrorism in the United States.
Timing of removal indicates political motivations, Trump’s agenda
There have been conflicting reports around the exact timing of the study’s removal. Some articles indicate it was available until approximately last Friday. That timing would have coincided with the fallout concerning the murder of conservative activist Charlie Kirk, which Trump and his allies attempted to blame on left-wing politics despite incomplete and questionable information about the alleged gunman’s ideological views. Paladino, who initially indicated in his Sept. 12 post that the article had been removed “sometime in the last 24 hours,” later updated his Substack article to note that the report appeared to be inaccessible through its NIJ link since February. In its place, according to a screenshot posted in Paladino’s article, was a message stating, “The Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs is currently reviewing its website and materials in accordance with recent Executive Orders and related guidance. During this review, some pages and publications will be unavailable.” The URL for the study currently leads to an error message stating “the requested page could not be found.”
Trump and allies whitewash history; blame opponents for violence
Even if the article’s removal wasn’t prompted by Kirk’s killing, the reference to “recent Executive Orders” indicates that scrubbing the report was done in response to directives from Trump. As Blavity reported, national parks, as well as museums and other federal agencies and organizations, have been reviewing and, in many cases, removing information related to slavery, racism and other topics to conform to orders from Trump. At the same time, journalists and Democratic politicians have come under fire from right-wing sources for comments related to the killing of Kirk, even as several HBCUs were temporarily closed due to “terrorist threats” in the immediate aftermath of Kirk’s death.
The Trump administration seems committed to its attempt to demonize its opponents while suppressing discussion of right-wing violence and the targeting of Black people, other minorities and those on the political left. Removing a study detailing the scope of right-wing violence in the United States appears to be one more step in this process of distorting the political reality of violence in the country.