Since late May, when protests against police killings of Black people began spreading to cities around the country, there have been dueling narratives about who was responsible for instigating violence, including damage to property and clashes with police, at the otherwise largely peaceful demonstrations.

President Trump and others within his administration, including Attorney General William Barr, have consistently sought, without evidence, to blame violent activity at these protests on antifa, an amorphous movement made up of various radical leftists and anarchist groups united in their willingness to use violence against neo-Nazis, white supremacists and anyone else they consider to be “fascists.”

At Thursday’s hearing, Republican Rep. Mark Walker, the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Intelligence & Counterterrorism, insisted that antifa is not just “a conservative talking point” and should be reviewed along with other violent extremists, including those with ties to white supremacy, antigovernment militias and other far-right accelerationist movements, such as the boogaloo.

“Over the past three months, there’s been a consistent effort by antifa supporters to infiltrate protests to lay siege to government buildings and target law enforcement,” said Walker.

However, a growing body of evidence, including intelligence reports, leaked law enforcement documents, as well as a number of indictments filed by Barr’s own Justice Department, has revealed significant threats against police and protesters by followers of far-right accelerationist and antigovernment militia movements, including the boogaloo. There has been little evidence of similarly coordinated efforts by groups associated with antifa.

In her written testimony, MacNab addressed recent efforts to paint “Antifa as the Fictional Enemy.”

“Known for confronting racists and right-wing militant groups at protests, causing property damage, and engaging in street violence, the various subgroups that make up Antifa are not without fault,” wrote MacNab. “They are not, however, the hyper-violent army that anti-government extremists make them out to be.”

MacNab acknowledged that “in the last two months, there has been a noticeable rise in left-wing private paramilitary groups.” However, while “the right-wing/left-wing labels may not be as clear as they once were,” she wrote, “the overwhelming majority of anti-government extremists are still right-wing.”

MacNab also sought to disentangle the somewhat confusing web of extremist ideologies that have come to identify with the boogaloo, emphasizing that the white supremacist wing of this movement is much smaller than the antigovernment extremist faction.

“Both movements want to tear the nation apart, to accelerate the downfall of society so that they can rebuild it to fit their idea of utopia, but they have different visions of what that utopia entails,” she wrote in her statement.