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Is domestic terrorism a federal crime?

Tuesday, January 12, 2021
By Mia Dillon
NO

While the Patriot Act in 2001 expanded the types of conduct that may be investigated as domestic terrorism, it did not make domestic terrorism a crime. The law defined domestic terrorism as acts “dangerous to human life” that “(i) intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction, assassination or kidnapping.”

Thomas Brzozowski, the Justice Department’s domestic counterterrorism coordinator, said there is a “considerable amount of ambiguity over domestic terrorism, what it means precisely, and how it’s charged.”

President-elect Biden has renewed calls to pass a law against domestic terrorism following the storming of the Capitol on January 6, 2021. Congressional efforts to pass a law in 2019 did not progress.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
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