FBI warned of white supremacist 'infiltration' of police

The FBI in 2006 saw danger of white supremacist “infiltration” of American policing, including law enforcement officers who leaked information to groups they sympathized with, according to a formerly secret document a Democratic congressman released Tuesday.

The 2006 assessment also warned that white supremacist “infiltration” of policing could result on “passive tolerance of racism.”.

Jamie Raskin, the Maryland Democrat who release the 2006 assessment, said given the current conversation on racial justice and policing, the FBI was prescient in what it spotted 14 years ago.

A heavily redacted version of the memo was published by The Intercept in 2017, hinting at the FBI’s awareness of links between white supremacists and law enforcement

But FBI Director Christopher Wray told Congress this month that white supremacists are the largest threat within the pool of self-radicalized domestic terrorists, and Homeland Security Department officials said over the past few years they have been the most lethal

The 2006 FBI assessment said it’s not clear how much actual infiltration had occurred by white supremacists into police departments, saying there was “little corroborated reporting” on attempts

“The apparent sporadic reporting on white supremacist infiltration of law enforcement could be an indication of successful infiltration that has gone undetected, unreported incidents, or — despite apparent intentions to the contrary — a lack of systematic effort on the part of white supremacist groups to recruit from law enforcement communities,” the FBI said in the memo