DOJ quietly removes study showing right wing attacks ‘outpace’ those by left

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The Justice Department quietly removed from its website a study showing far-right extremists were responsible for the bulk of ideologically motivated deaths — a move that comes as the GOP seeks to back claims from President Trump that the “radical left” poses a greater danger than the right wing.

The 2024 study, in which several criminal justice researchers reviewed National Institute of Justice data, found far more instances of deaths credited to right-wing groups.

The study was still available on the Justice Department website last week, but a researcher on extremism posted on social media that it had been removed in the days after the killing of right-wing activist Charlie Kirk.

“The number of far-right attacks continues to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism,” the study says.

“Since 1990, far-right extremists have committed far more ideologically motivated homicides than far-left or radical Islamist extremists, including 227 events that took more than 520 lives,” the study states. 

“In this same period, far-left extremists committed 42 ideologically motivated attacks that took 78 lives.”

The removal of the study was first reported Tuesday by 404 Media, which credited Daniel Malmer, a Ph.D. student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who is studying extremism, with first noticing the removal of the study Sept. 13.

In a post on social media, Malmer said the study had been visible the day before.

The Justice Department did not respond to request for comment on the removal of the study, but the page now says the department is “reviewing its websites … in accordance with recent Executive Orders.”

It’s not clear which executive orders would require such action.

The Hill has since obtained the original study, which discussing a number of factors motivating extremists, including further radicalization by connecting with others online.

“Web forums included discussions about a variety of beliefs, such as gun rights, conspiracy theories, hate-based sentiments, and anti-government beliefs; however, the intensity of ideological expression was generally weak. The nature of the online environments that far-right groups use likely facilitates the diffusion of ideological agendas,” it states.

“Users grew more ideological and radical as other users reinforced their ideas and connected their ideas to those from other forums.”

Since Kirk’s death, Trump has repeatedly blamed the left when asked about extremism within fringes of both parties.

“If you look at the problem, the problem is on the left. It’s not on the right. Some people like to say the right — the problem we have is on the left,” Trump told reporters Sunday. “And when you look at the agitator, you look at the scum that speaks so badly of our country, the American flag burnings all over the place, that’s the left. That’s not the right.”

That claim is countered by numerous studies — including the one removed from the Justice Department website.

The FBI in recent years has warned of the risks of domestic violent extremism, including those motivated by beliefs in fraud related to the 2020 election, racial and ethnic prejudice, and even COVID-19.

Other recent studies have backed the conclusion that murders by far-right extremists are more frequent than those perpetrated by the left.

A study by the Cato Institute, a libertarian group, found that since 2020, right-wing extremists were responsible for more than half of all politically motivated deaths, 44, while left-wing extremists were responsible for 22 percent, a total of 18 deaths.

Updated at 2 p.m. EDT