Pressure mounts on Barr DOJ to identify funders, organizers of violent riots

Conservative pressure is mounting on Attorney General William Barr and his Justice Department to ratchet up investigations of violent rioters across the country, specifically to identify those funding and organizing the mayhem.

Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, made weekend appeals for DOJ to take action to cut off funding and logistical support for the groups of rioters that have terrorized and destroyed American cities for months.

“Law enforcement needs to look at the funding of violent criminal activity like this. And national Democrats need to confront it. It’s organized. It’s paid for. It’s violent. It’s not about Black lives or any lives; it’s about anarchy and destruction,” Paul wrote in a Fox News op-ed on Saturday.

The Kentucky senator’s comments came after he and his wife was confronted by an angry mob in Washington DC while leaving President Trump’s nominating convention acceptance speech Thursday night.

Paul said some of activists ended up staying on the same floor of his hotel, furthering his concern for safety.

Buck tweeted his concerns on Sunday, saying it was time for DOJ to follow the money.

"The Justice Department needs to open an investigation into who is funding these violent riots," Buck wrote.

The weekend pressure follows other GOP lawmakers urging DOJ to do more to stop the organize violence plaguing U.S. cities since June.

For instance, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., earlier this month urged DOJ to prosecute the suspects caught on videotape beating and kicking a man who crashed his truck near Black Lives Matter protests in Portland, Ore.

"This shocking attack by a mob against a young man in the streets of Portland is beyond the pale," Graham wrote.