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For Immediate Release
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Malik Russell, mrussell@naacpnet.org

NAACP Outraged by Attorney General's Ignorance of FBI Report

The NAACP, the nation's original civil rights organization, is outraged by Attorney General Jeff Sessions' alleged ignorance of a recent FBI report on "black identity extremists."

During a House Judiciary Committee hearing on November 14, 2017, Mr. Sessions claimed that he was unaware of the troublesome report, which characterizes certain protestors of police brutality as potential terrorists.

BALTIMORE, Md.

The NAACP, the nation's original civil rights organization, is outraged by Attorney General Jeff Sessions' alleged ignorance of a recent FBI report on "black identity extremists."

During a House Judiciary Committee hearing on November 14, 2017, Mr. Sessions claimed that he was unaware of the troublesome report, which characterizes certain protestors of police brutality as potential terrorists.

Mr. Sessions did admit, when pressed by Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA37), that he was "aware that there are groups that do have an extraordinary commitment to their racial identity, and some have transformed themselves even into violent activists." However, he evaded Rep. Bass' questions regarding FBI intelligence on white identity groups like the Ku Klux Klan.

"The NAACP finds it deeply disturbing that the head of the Department of Justice would be unaware of a such a highly criticized report regarding the dangerous tactic by the FBI of linking protestors of police brutality to violence and terrorism," said Derrick Johnson, NAACP President and CEO.

"Mr. Sessions' willingness to name Black activists as a threat and refusal to condemn white supremacist terrorist organizations evokes a double standard that we have seen time and again from this administration and remains unacceptable."

Founded Feb. 12. 1909, the NAACP is the nation's oldest, largest and most widely recognized grassroots-based civil rights organization. Its more than half-million members and supporters throughout the United States and the world are the premier advocates for civil rights in their communities, conducting voter mobilization and monitoring equal opportunity in the public and private sectors.