Feds: Domestic extremists pose the greatest threat during the election

Federal intelligence agencies have identified domestic extremists driven by election-related conspiracy theories as the most likely source of violence during next week’s election, according to a new report from NBC News. That assessment is mirrored by two new studies from groups that monitor domestic extremism. 
Meanwhile, USA TODAY reports on the family of Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, who fear for their lives if former President Donald Trump pardons Rhodes. There’s also a great longread on the downfall of a neo-Nazi in rural Maine, and a company is selling political data pinpointing whether people support QAnon, the Jan. 6 insurrection and other far-right causes.
It’s the week in extremism.   
Domestic extremists driven by grievances about alleged election fraud and conspiracy theories pose the greatest threat of violence over next week’s election, according to a joint intelligence briefing from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security reported on this week by NBC News.
Two other reports released this week by groups that monitor domestic extremism also raise the specter of election-related violence in the days and weeks to come.
A major USA TODAY report this week tells the story of Tasha and Dakota Adams and the family of Elmer Stewart Rhodes, founder of the Oath Keepers, who was imprisoned for 18 years for seditious conspiracy last year. Rhodes’s family, who say they lived under his tyranny for decades, are terrified he will be pardoned by Trump and will seek revenge against them.
Another great long-read this week comes from The Atavist Magazine, which has a story about nao-Nazi Christopher Pohlhaus, otherwise known as “Hammer” who tried and failed to set up a white supremacist compound in rural Maine. 
Pohlhaus was driven out of America’s whitest state thanks to sleuthing by journalists that led to animosity against him from his neighbors.
Polling firm sells database of far-right conspiracy theorists
A political data polling company is selling a voter database identifying Americans based on their support for far-right conspiracy theories and so-called armed militia groups, according to a new report from Politico this week.   
That’s the proportion of U.S. Senators considered “at risk” of objecting to certifying the results of next week’s election on Jan. 6, according to new research from the voting rights advocacy association Public Wise.
Public Wise identified 24 sitting senators and seven candidates for US Senate who “either voted against certification, publicly stated plans to vote against certification in 2020, publicly questioned the results of the 2020 or 2022 elections, refused to say whether they would accept the results of the 2024 election, and/or spread disinformation about voting and elections.”
USA TODAY also asked every member of Congress last month whether they would certify the election. Of those who responded, the majority of incumbents vowed to uphold the election results