FBI Director Christopher Wray said on Tuesday that officials have classified the January 6 attack on the US Capitol as domestic terrorism.
"That attack, that siege, was criminal behavior, plain and simple, and it’s behavior that we, the FBI, view as domestic terrorism," Wray told lawmakers on the Senate Judiciary Committee, according to The Hill.
Wray said the FBI has received more than 270,000 tips from Americans that have helped the bureau identify the numerous people who allegedly participated in the attack.
"Citizens from around the country have sent us more than 270,000 digital media tips. Some have even taken the painful step of turning in their friends or their family members,” he said.
Wray resisted pinning the Capitol breach on a single extremist ideology, saying the group of attackers “included a variety of backgrounds.”
“The attackers on January 6 included a number — and the number keeps growing as we build out our investigations — of what we would call militia violent extremism. And we have had some already arrested who we would put in the category of racially motivated violent extremism, white as well. Those would be the categories so far that we're seeing as far as January 6,” said Wray.
Former US President Donald Trump has been accused of inciting the January 6 riots on the Capitol, though the Senate acquitted Trump of charges of “inciting insurrection” leading to the riots. While the vote was 57-43 in favor of conviction, it was 10 shy of the supermajority needed.
The NAACP and Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) recently sued Trump in connection with the riots. The lawsuit alleges that Trump incited the Capitol riot in violation of a Reconstruction Era law commonly referred to as the Ku Klux Klan Act.