FBI: 'Antifa is a real thing'

FBI Director Christopher Wray said Thursday that “Antifa is a real thing,” pushing back against Democrats who have questioned the threat of left-wing violence.

“Antifa is a real thing, it’s not a fiction. But it’s not an organization or a structure, we understand it to be more of a kind of a movement, or maybe you could call it an ideology,” Mr. Wray told Congress.

He said the FBI has opened a number of investigations into people who “self-identify as Antifa” this year.

And he said that while they don’t see a strict structure for activists who identify Antifa, or anti-fascist, they have seen signs of some regional organization developing.

“We are actively investigating the potential violence from those regional nodes,” Mr. Wray said.