https://people.com/[WORD TOO LONG]
DOJ Quietly Deletes Study After Charlie Kirk's Death That Says Right-Wing Extremists Engage in 'Far More' Political Violence
"Far-right extremists have committed far more ideologically motivated homicides than far-left or radical Islamist extremists," an archived version of the study reads
By Angel Saunders
Published on September 16, 2025 08:56PM EDT
NEED TO KNOW
* A study on the growing frequency of “far-right attacks” was removed from the Department of Justice’s website
* The removal happened after right-wing political commentator Charlie Kirk was shot and killed on a college campus in Utah
* An archived version of the study is still available online, and states that “far-right extremists have committed far more ideologically motivated homicides” than the left
The U.S. Department of Justice appears to have quietly removed information online regarding right-wing violence following the assassination of Charlie Kirk.
As of Friday, Sept. 12, a 2024 study titled “What NIJ Research Tells Us About Domestic Terrorism” no longer appears on the DOJ website under President Donald Trump's administration. However, it is still viewable as an archived post on Wayback Machine. (link: https://web.archive.org/web/20250912005717/https://www.ojp.gov/pdffiles1/nij/306123.pdf )
“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,” the first two lines of the study read.
The study went on to say, “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.”
Kirk was shot and killed on Thursday, Sept. 10, during a speaking event at Utah Valley University that was part of the right-wing political commentator’s nationwide American Comeback Tour.
During a Sept. 12 appearance on Fox & Friends, Trump, 79, responded to a question about how to "come back together" amid political division following Kirk’s death by saying, “I couldn’t care less.”
"The radicals on the left are the problem,” he added. “They’re vicious, and they’re horrible, and they’re politically savvy.”
Trump’s comments come after the Democratic leader of the Minnesota House, Melissa Hortman, was killed alongside her husband at their home in June in what Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz considered a "politically motivated assassination."
The couple and their dog were killed at their house on June 14 by a gunman who pretended to be law enforcement, according to authorities.
Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were also shot in their home — allegedly by the same gunman — but recovered from their injuries.
The Minnesota and Utah attacks were the latest high-profile examples of political violence targeting figures on both sides of the aisle.
On Jan. 6, 2021, pro-Trump rioters breached the U.S. Capitol in search of lawmakers; in 2022, the husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was attacked with a hammer by a home intruder; on the 2024 campaign trail, Trump survived two apparent assassination attempts; and earlier in 2025, Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro's home was set ablaze while he and his family were asleep inside.
https://people.com/[WORD TOO LONG]
{I know most won't go check out the study's Wayback Machine link, which I posted in the article for your convenience, so here is the meat of it, the entire first paragraph of the study, along with the footnotes from that paragraph.)
WHAT NIJ RESEARCH TELLS US ABOUT DOMESTIC TERRORISM
BY STEVEN CHERMAK, MATTHEW DEMICHELE, JEFF GRUENEWALD, MICHAEL JENSEN, RAVEN LEWIS,
AND BASIA E. LOPEZ
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.[2] 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.[3]
Notes
1. Celinet Duran, “Far-Left Versus Far-Right Fatal
Violence: An Empirical Assessment of the Prevalence
of Ideologically Motivated Homicides in the United
States,” Criminology, Criminal Justice, Law & Society 22
no. 2 (2021): 33-49, https://ccjls.scholasticahq.com/
article/26973-far-left-versus-far-right-fatal-violence-an-
empirical-assessment-of-the-prevalence-of-ideologically-
motivated-homicides-in-the-united-states; Joshua D.
Freilich et al.,“Introducing the United States Extremist
Crime Database (ECDB),” Terrorism and Political Violence
26 no. 2 (2014): 372-384, https://doi.org/10.1080/09
546553.2012.713229; and William Parkin, Joshua D.
Freilich, and Steven Chermak, “Did Far-Right Extremist
Violence Really Spike in 2017?” The Conversation,
January 4, 2018, https://theconversation.com/
did-far-right-extremist-violence-really-spike-in-2017-89067.
2. Duran, “Far-Left Versus Far-Right Fatal Violence”; Freilich et
al., “Introducing the United States Extremist Crime Database
(ECDB)”; and Parkin, Freilich, and Chermak, “Did Far-Right
Extremist Violence Really Spike in 2017?”
3. U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Threat
Assessment: October 2020, Washington, DC: U.S.
Department of Homeland Security, 2020, https://www.
dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/2020_10_06_
homeland-threat-assessment.pdf.