Attorney General William Barr announced Saturday that he won’t wince at prosecuting protesters who cross state lines to participate in violent rioting as protests and unrest unfold across the U.S. over the death of George Floyd.
Barr said that while it’s up to state and local leadership to halt the violence, the Department of Justice would support their efforts and take “all action necessary” to enforce federal law that prohibits crossing state lines to participate in or incite violent rioting.
“We must have law and order on our streets and in our communities,” the attorney general said.
Barr went on to blame the violent incidents in Minneapolis and other cities on “far-left extremist groups,” wording that echoes comments made earlier in the day by President Donald Trump in which he suggested the chaos was caused by “ANTIFA and the Radical Left” in a series of tweets.
“Unfortunately, with the rioting that is occurring in many of our cities around the country, the voices of peaceful protests are being hijacked by violent radical elements,” Barr said. “In many places it appears the violence is planned, organized, and driven by far left extremist groups and anarchic groups using Antifa-like tactics.”
Antifa, short for “antifacists,” is a loose movement or collection of far-left groups that espouse anarchist views and argue that the social change they seek requires radical measures such as violence.
Neither Barr nor Trump has offered any evidence backing their assertions of who was behind the violence and vandalism. Barr did not take questions during his two-and-a-half minute statement delivered on short-notice to a pool television camera at Justice Department headquarters.
In response to queries after Barr’s comments about what evidence federal authorities have that “leftists” were responsible for violence at the ongoing protests, a Justice Department spokeswoman cited “information given to us by state and local law enforcement.”
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