DOJ Deletes Its Own Study From Website Showing ‘Far More’ Domestic Terrorism Committed by ‘Far-Right Extremists’
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Within the past few days, the Department of Justice deleted one of its own studies from its website showing that “far-right extremists have committed far more ideologically motivated homicides than far-left or radical Islamist extremists.”
The timing comes just a few days after Charlie Kirk, the 31-year-old founder of Turning Point USA, was fatally shot while speaking at an event at Utah Valley University on September 10. Tyler Robinson, 22, has been arrested and charged with aggravated murder, felony discharge of a firearm causing serious bodily injury, two counts of obstruction of justice, two counts of witness tampering, and commission of a violent offense in the presence of a child. The state is seeking the death penalty.
Kirk was a staunch supporter of President Donald Trump, encouraging the young voters in his organization to vote for Trump during his presidential campaigns and speaking at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee last year. In the wake of Kirk’s death, Trump and other Republicans have broadly blamed the “radical left” for the shooting.
The deletion of the study from the DOJ website was first reported by Jason Paladino on his Substack and then flagged by Daniel Malmer, a PhD student at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill who is studying “online extremism, radicalization, and conspiracy beliefs.”
This is an archived government report that found that “Since 1990, far-right extremists have committed far more ideologically motivated homicides than far-left or radical Islamist extremists.”
It existed yesterday and is gone today.
— Daniel Malmer (@malmer.com) September 13, 2025 at 9:39 AM
The report, “What NIJ Research Tells Us About Domestic Terrorism,” was a project of the National Institute of Justice, an agency under DOJ, and based on internet archives, was still available on the DOJ website on September 12 but was gone by September 13.
The quote about far-right extremists committing “far more” deadly acts of domestic terrorism comes from the very first paragraph of the report.
From the text of an archived version of the report:
Militant, nationalistic, white supremacist violent extremism has increased in the United States. In fact, the number of far-right attacks continues to outpace all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism. 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.[1] In this same period, far-left extremists committed 42 ideologically motivated attacks that took 78 lives. A recent threat assessment by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security concluded that domestic violent extremists are an acute threat and highlighted a probability that COVID-19 pandemic-related stressors, long-standing ideological grievances related to immigration, and narratives surrounding electoral fraud will continue to serve as a justification for violent actions.
The DOJ website where this report was previously hosted displayed a message saying the agency was reviewing online content. According to a report by 404 Media, the message originally read, “The Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Programs is currently reviewing its websites and materials in accordance with recent Executive Orders and related guidance. During this review, some pages and publications will be unavailable. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.”
That message has now been updated again to a single sentence: “The requested page could not be found.”
Screenshot via Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs website.
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This article has been updated with additional information to note that Jason Paladino was the first to report the deletion.
