ATTORNEY GENERAL VOWS TO COMBAT EXTREMISM
Garland speaks on anniversary of attack in Oklahoma City
Attorney General Merrick Garland said Monday that the Justice Department was pouring resources into its effort to stop domestic violent extremists and that those who attacked the United States would be brought to justice, in a speech commemorating the 26th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing.
As a young Justice Department official, Garland led the investigation into the 1995 attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building, the worst domestic terrorist attack in American history. Timothy McVeigh, who hoped to use violence to set off an anti-government revolution, was ultimately convicted of using a huge truck bomb to destroy the federal building and kill 168 people, including 19 children.
“Although many years have passed, the terror perpetrated by people like Timothy McVeigh is still with us,” Garland said. “The Department of Justice is pouring its resources into stopping domestic violent extremists before they can attack, prosecuting those who do, and battling the spread of the kind of hate that leads to tragedies like the one we mark here today.”
Garland’s trip to Oklahoma also included a visit to a memorial in Tulsa for the 1921 race riot that killed as many as 300 people and burned down more than 1,200 homes in the city in one of the worst acts of racial violence in American history.
In an interview with ABC News, Garland called the Tulsa riot “the product of the same kind of hatred that led to the bombing in Oklahoma City,” and he said both were “brought by terrible hatred.”
Garland made his public comments as the Biden administration is working to combat domestic extremism after the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol that included members of anti-government militias and other right-wing extremist groups.
An intelligence report delivered to Congress last month warned that extremist groups pose a rising threat.