For months, Attorney General William Barr and President Donald Trump have sought to highlight alleged left-wing violence in the wake of nationwide protests against police brutality. However, they are strangely silent as right-wing domestic terrorism emerges as the real threat of violence in the country.
The arrest of 13 men who allegedly plotted to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is the latest in a string of right-wing alleged violent threats and Barr, the nation’s top law enforcement officer, hasn’t say a word about it.
On Thursday, the FBI and the Michigan US attorneys announced charges against six of the men for conspiracy to kidnap, and seven other people, associated with a group called “Wolverine Watchmen,” are facing state charges.
The federal criminal complaint says the alleged scheme included plans to overthrow several state governments that the suspects “believe are violating the US Constitution,” including the government of Michigan and Whitmer.
The attorney general typically weighs in on high-profile cases. But while Barr was briefed this week on the Whitmer plot, the attorney general has yet to comment publicly on the arrests, and the announcement of the charges didn’t include any comment from Barr.
Since the police killing of George Floyd, Barr and Trump have railed against a wave of what they said was leftist violence for protesting police shootings against Blacks and other minorities. They have particularly taken aim at people alleged to be associated with the antifa ideology, as well as people associated with the Black Lives Matter movement.
The Justice Department has announced more than 300 arrests in unrest in cities around the country, some for misdemeanors such as throwing rocks at police. But they didn’t mention the arrest of several right-wing agitators, including some associated with the Boogaloo movement, for allegedly serious violence plots against police and against racial justice protesters.
The Michigan plot is the latest in a string of serious right-wing violent threats or events that Barr has been noticeably silent about. He was silent about the shooting deaths of two officers in California and the arrest of three members of the “Boogaloo” movement, while he uses highly torqued rhetoric about antifa and alleged left-wing violence.
Last month, Barr demanded that federal and state prosecutors vigorously charge protest-related defendants with the rarely-used sedition law, that would make it a crime to conspire to overthrow the government. However, none of the ring-wing terrorists who plotted to kidnap and kill Gov. Whitmer were charged with sedition.
