In Los Angeles, federal prosecutors claimed Monday the FBI foiled a terror plot by a U.S. military veteran to bomb several Southern California targets, including the Port of Long Beach and the Santa Monica Pier, in retaliation for the Christchurch massacres. This is U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna.

Nick Hanna: “The complaint charges Mark Steven Domingo, a 26-year-old resident of Reseda, with the felony offense of providing and attempting to provide material support to terrorists. Mr. Domingo is a United States Army—former United States Army soldier who served in Afghanistan and is also a recent convert to Islam. … Fortunately, the IEDs that he planned to use weren’t actual bombs; they were inert devices provided by the FBI that posed no danger to the public.”

Critics of similar terrorism investigations conducted by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force say agents have repeatedly manufactured plots in order to entrap young Muslims. A review by the Anti-Defamation League of 50 murders committed by extremists in 2018 found 49 came at the hands of right-wing extremists, with white supremacists alone accounting for 39 of the murders.