The FBI has acknowledged that federal authorities are reviewing a Texas highway incident Friday in which a vehicle caravan waving Trump flags swarmed a Biden campaign bus, even as President Donald Trump on Monday began his last day of campaigning falsely claiming the inquiry did not exist.
The FBI Monday declined to elaborate on the investigation, prompted when the Austin-bound Biden campaign reported that the Trump vehicles allegedly surrounded the bus, raising concerns that it could run it off the road.
Democratic nominee Joe Biden and his running-mate Kamala Harris were not on board at the time. No one was injured, and the bus eventually reached its destination in with the assistance of law enforcement.
Trump's comment disputing the FBI's inquiry comes as he has been harshly critical of the bureau in recent months with aides saying that the president is considering removing FBI Director Christopher Wray following the election.
Last week, the FBI Agents Association offered its strong support for the director and urged both Trump and Biden to allow Wray to serve out his full 10-year term.
NEW: Very short statement from the FBI confirming that they are investigating incident Friday involving Biden bus. pic.twitter.com/hM5hlL4ERI
— Tony Plohetski (@tplohetski) November 1, 2020
Echoing a tweet he issued Sunday about the incident, Trump also claimed that his supporters "did nothing wrong."
"But the ANTIFA Anarchists, Rioters and Looters, who have caused so much harm and destruction in Democrat run cities, are being seriously looked at!" Trump railed.
Trump referred to his repeated and unsupported claims that social justice protests against police-related violence have been driven by an anti-facist movement known as Antifa.
Wray told the House Homeland Security Committee in September that the majority of summer demonstrations had been "peaceful," though he acknowledged that the FBI had opened a number of investigations into suspects who have been drawn to violent extremist agendas, including the far left anti-fascist movement known as antifa.
"Antifa is a real thing," Wray said, adding that the bureau regards it more as a "movement" or ideology rather than an actual terror group or organization.
"Trump needs to quit interfering in criminal investigations," tweeted Joyce White Vance, law professor at the University of Alabama and a former U.S. attorney. "DOJ (Department of Justice) & FBI aren’t his political tools."
While the FBI declined to elaborate, Georgetown Law's Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection notes that voter intimidation is a crime under federal law and under every state’s laws, which applies equally to voter intimidation conducted from vehicles.
Its Voter Protection Program document states that examples of voter intimidation may include:
Tailgating other vehicles
Brandishing or intimidating display of firearms
Swerving aggressively towards pedestrians or other vehicles
Disrupting voting lines or blocking entrances
Aggressively revving engines as voters pass
Aggressively approaching voters’ cars or writing down license plate numbers
Verbal threats of violence
Blocking roads to the polls
Following voters to, from, or within polling places
Confronting voters while wearing military-style or official-looking uniforms
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: FBI reviewing Biden bus, Trump train incident, contrary to Trump tweet