When the FBI’s Norfolk office circulated a Jan. 5 report warning of talk online about “war” at the Capitol the next day, it contained cautionary language indicating that some of the individuals named in the report “have been identified as participating in activities that are protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution” and that their mention in the memo “is not intended to associate the protected activity with criminality or a threat to national security, or to infer that such protected activity itself violates federal law.” Such language is a direct outgrowth of the bureau’s past domestic spying abuses, but lawmakers have questioned whether the FBI was too reticent in pursuing brazen talk of politically motivated violence.

Source: Washington Post May 04, 2021 15:20 UTC