U.S. Rep Bennie Thompson Exposes FBI Casting Antifa as Top US Threat Despite Sparse FBI Details
A top FBI official described antifa as the nation’s most pressing domestic terrorism threat during a congressional hearing Thursday, but the testimony raised more questions than clarity.
Michael Glasheen, operations director of the FBI’s National Security Branch, told lawmakers the anti-fascist movement was the bureau’s “primary concern” and “the most immediate violent threat that we’re facing,” despite offering few specifics about what the FBI believes the movement actually is.
When pressed by U.S. Representative Bennie Thompson, the top Democrat on the committee, Glasheen could not say where antifa operates or estimate how many members it has. He called antifa’s membership “very fluid” and emphasized only that “investigations are active.”
“Sir, you wouldn’t come to this committee to say something that you can’t prove,” Thompson said pointedly. “I know you wouldn’t do that. But you did.”
An FBI spokesperson later defended Glasheen’s remarks, saying the agency “is aggressively pursuing violent actors of Antifa as well as their networks and funding sources.”
The Trump White House designated antifa as a domestic terrorist organization in September, a move cheered by conservatives but questioned by national security experts who argue antifa is not a traditional organization.
That debate mirrors earlier testimony: in 2020, then-FBI Director Chris Wray told Congress that “antifa is an ideology, not an organization,” a statement that contradicted President Donald Trump. Hours after that hearing, Trump publicly rebuked his FBI director, insisting antifa was a group of “well funded anarchists & thugs.”
Thursday’s hearing, part of the House Homeland Security Committee’s annual review of worldwide threats, quickly reflected similar partisan tensions. Glasheen appeared alongside National Counterterrorism Center Director Joe Kent and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
Later in the session, Glasheen said the FBI had 70 active antifa-related investigations and reported a 171 percent increase in related arrests this year.
Noem used her testimony to criticize current immigration policy and attacked lawmakers who defend migrants, calling such arguments “shameful.” “If you don’t like the laws, change them,” she said. “That’s your job. So you should all be fired, in my opinion.”
She also argued that vetting failures under President Joe Biden allowed an Afghan immigrant, later accused of attacking National Guard troops in Washington, D.C., to enter the country, though he was granted asylum in April under the Trump administration.
