What we do and don’t know about the extremists taking part in riots across the US

By Jeremy Herb, Evan Perez, Donie O’Sullivan and Mark Morales, CNN

Updated 9:20 PM ET, Sun May 31, 2020
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“Many of these professional agitators don’t fit a simple left vs right identity,” Rubio said. “They are part of a growing anti-government extremist movement. They hate law enforcement & want to tear the whole system down even if it requires a new civil war.”

(CNN)Law enforcement and federal officials say outside elements from both far-right and far-left groups are helping fuel the violent and damaging confrontations that have marred protests across the country in recent days, despite President Donald Trump’s focus just on Antifa and the far left.

Although interference in this way may be happening, federal and local officials have yet to provide evidence to the public.

Local and federal officials are still trying to quantify how significant a role the outside groups are playing in the unrest that has spread to cities all over the US. Officials are scrambling to identify the affiliations of the extremists taking part in the riots, property destruction and attacks on police, and allegations of foreign influence stoking the unrest online are being actively tracked.

Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz said Sunday that ultimately the catalyst of the protests was the death of George Floyd, an unarmed black man who was held down at the neck by white police officer Derek Chauvin, who was charged with third-degree murder and manslaughter on Friday. But the state is looking at data from arrests and human intelligence that points to some outside influence seeking to capitalize on the situation and create unrest. READ FULL ARTICLE