Marjorie Taylor Greene votes no to Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act

After denying she sponsored the Jan. 6 insurgency, Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said she would vote against a bill aimed at fighting domestic terrorist groups.

The hot-headed Georgia representative said Tuesday on Twitter that she would vote against the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2022 over concerns about government overreach. Greene announced her opposition to the bill days after testifying under oath about her alleged role in trying to overthrow the 2020 presidential election.

The law is intended to better equip federal law enforcement agencies to deal with growing domestic extremism and authorizes the domestic terrorism offices of the Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

“We must ensure those tasked with protecting our communities have the resources needed to proactively detect and thwart extremist violence wherever the threat arises, including from racial/ethnic violent extremists and white supremacists groups,” said Brad Schneider, US Representative from Illinois, the Democrat sponsor of the bill, said in a statement this month.

The law, passed by the House Judiciary Committee by a vote of 21 to 17, also mandates semi-annual reporting on domestic terrorist threats and directs federal agencies to focus on the greatest threats.

But Greene said in her tweet that the bill “would give the FBI, DOJ, and DHS unlimited money to target anyone who challenges Biden administration policies and commits a ‘hate crime’.”

“It empowers Biden’s DOJ to train federal prosecutors on how to prosecute anyone they accuse of “‘domestic terrorism,'” she said in a follow-up tweet.

Greene said the bill contains vague definitions that could include parents “telling a man to get out of our daughter’s bathrooms.” Or Trump supporters posting about elections.”

On Friday, Greene, who has remained loyal to former President Donald Trump, was placed under oath while answering questions about her past online activities as part of a court case that could determine her political future.

A group of Georgia voters, represented by legal agency Free Speech For People, previously filed a lawsuit to disqualify Greene from voting. The group relies on a provision of the 14th Amendment that disqualifies anyone who has participated in an insurgency from holding elected office.

During a hearing before an administrative judge, an attorney for the group representing Georgia voters argued that Greene “justified,” “supported,” and “promoted” the January 6 riot, sometimes using veiled terms like “1776.” .

Andrew Celli, an attorney representing Georgia voters, referred to her earlier statements posted online, urging people to flood the US Capitol and “stop the theft of the 2020 election.”

“She was one of several leaders who collected the kindling that created the conditions that made it possible for an explosion of violence to occur in the Capitol on Jan. 6,” Celli told the judge.

Greene denied encouraging the uprising and said she only believes in “peaceful demonstrations,” adding, “I don’t support violence.”

James Bopp Jr., her attorney, said Greene was a victim of the attack on the Capitol and called the trial a “political show trial.”

news week asked Schneider for an answer.