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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Ed Pilkington in New York

Fears of renewed FBI abuse of power after informant infiltrated BLM protests

A crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters runs from pepper ball shots from riot police in Denver in May 2020.
A crowd of Black Lives Matter protesters runs from pepper ball shots from riot police in Denver in May 2020. Photograph: Paul Winner/Rex/Shutterstock

The FBI’s use of an informant to infiltrate Black Lives Matter in Denver during the wave of protests over the 2020 police killing of George Floyd has prompted concern in Congress that the federal agency is once again abusing its powers to harass and intimidate minority groups.

Ron Wyden, the Democratic senator from Oregon, is calling for the FBI to explain how it came to recruit a violent felon as an informant who then went on to gain prominence among Denver racial justice activists. The informant is alleged to have encouraged protesters to engage in increasingly violent demonstrations while trying to entrap them in criminal misdeeds.

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