Donald Trump’s almost singular focus on making antifa into a serious threat to national security drew vital law enforcement resources away from investigating the right-wing domestic terrorists who would eventually set siege on the Capitol in a coup attempt, the New York Times reports.

Labeling antifa a domestic terrorist threat, Trump rallied his supporters from inside and outside the government to concentrate public attention on antifa.  Attorney General Bill Barr redirected forces–including uniformed officers from a variety of Justice Department bureaus–to hotspots for left-wing activism like Portland.

The resources assigned by Barr were disproportionate to the risk, according to officials who attended meetings with Barr about the civil unrest.  Investigators told the Times they felt pressure to find or create evidence to characterize antifa as a unified organization planning coordinated attacks within the US.  DoJ investigators, however, understood antifa was a loose affiliation of acquaintances who did not have a cohesive plan.

Trump’s public statements, often made over Twitter, accused DoJ officials like FBI Director Christopher Wray of protecting “anarchists and thugs” and helping them “to get away with ‘murder.’”

High ranking DoJ officials continued pushing investigators to probe more into antifa and other alleged left wing organizations, requiring some key agents to file twice daily reports.

The counterterrorism unit of the FBI had been tracking threats from organizations like Three Percenters, Oath Keepers, other militia members, but some pivoted from investigating white supremacists to potential threats from anarchists.

After Democratic Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer was the target of a kidnapping plot from right-wing militia members, Trump seemingly dismissed the danger from them.  “She calls me a White Supremacist — while Biden and Democrats refuse to condemn Antifa, Anarchists, Looters and Mobs that burn down Democrat run cities,” Trump tweeted.