FBI probing hundreds of white-supremacist cases

WASHINGTON — The FBI is conducting about 1,000 investigations of suspected white supremacists or other types of domestic terrorists who might be planning violence, top federal officials told Senate lawmakers Wednesday.

Christopher Wray, in his first congressional testimony as FBI director, confirmed that his office has about 1,000 inquiries that people generally categorize as “domestic terrorism’’ — a catchall term often used to describe those motivated to commit violence in furtherance of racist causes.

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, prompted Wray to confirm the number. FBI officials have previously said they had about 1,000 ongoing investigations in the U.S. of suspects who may be inspired by the Islamic State group to commit violence.

Wednesday’s hearing was the first public indication that the FBI is dealing with a similar number of domestic terrorism cases.

“We’re very busy,’’ Wray said.

Asked by Johnson if there are any differences in how they handled white-supremacist terrorism cases vs. Islamic State terrorism cases, he said there are not, except for the criminal laws that may be applied.

Federal law makes it a crime to provide material support to a foreign terrorist group. There is no corresponding law regarding support for a violent white-supremacist group.

“In most ways they’re similar, probably the biggest difference is there’s not a domestic terrorism offense as such,’’ Wray told the committee. He added that investigations of foreign-inspired suspects also may use foreign intelligence court orders to gather intelligence — a tool that would not be available in an investigation of a white supremacist group.

The debate about the lack of such a law heated up after a suspected white supremacist allegedly drove his car into a crowd of protesters in Charlottesville, Va., this summer, killing a woman.