The FBI issued a statement clarifying its role in the Portland, Oregon, protests, saying that it was there to investigate “specific violations of federal law” and that it will target violent acts and property destruction, not ideology.
Portland, like many other U.S. cities, has seen nightly protests that began at the end of May in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a black man who died while in Minneapolis police custody. Many of those protests escalated into violence and rioting, with protesters sometimes hurling projectiles and fireworks toward a federal courthouse. The Trump administration has responded to the violence by surging federal law enforcement resources to the city to combat the violence and protect federal buildings and monuments.
