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WASHINGTON – The Department of Justice has removed a study on its website that found the "number of far-right attacks" outpaces "all other types of terrorism and domestic violent extremism."The removal of the study, which happened after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, was flagged on Sept. 12 by reporter Jason Paladino. It was also flagged on Sept. 13 by Daniel Malmer, a PhD student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who studies online extremism, on the platform Bluesky.The National Institute of Justice study, titled "What NIJ Research Tells Us About Domestic Terrorism," notes that "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.""In this same period, far-left extremists committed 42 ideologically motivated attacks that took 78 lives," the study said.Other studies have come to similar conclusions. For instance, a Sept. 11 study by the libertarian think tank Cato Institute found that terrorists motivated by extreme sectors of right-leaning ideology killed six times more people than those on the far left of the political spectrum between 1975 and Sept. 10 of this year. Since 1975, 391 murders were motivated by extreme ideology on the right, compared with 65 murders backed by extreme ideology on the left, according to the report.Kirk, 31, was fatally shot Sept. 10 while speaking in front of a crowd of people as part of his "American Comeback Tour" at Utah Valley University. President Donald Trump announced Kirk’s death on Truth Social, calling him “Great, and even Legendary.”Law enforcement authorities investigating Kirk’s killing have said the suspect, 22-year-old Tyler Robinson, held a "leftist ideology" and had become increasingly political in recent years. Officials have not said that Robinson was linked with a specific left-leaning organization.Trump claimed in a Sept. 12 interview on "Fox & Friends" that "the radicals on the left are the problem, and they’re vicious and they’re horrible and they’re politically savvy."Trump administration officials have said they're planning to use "every resource" available across the federal government to target left-leaning organizations they contend are promoting political violence.USA TODAY reached out to the DOJ for comment.Contributing: Joey Garrison, Aysha Bagchi and Christopher CannThis story has been updated to add new information.
