The GOP has seized on the murder of far-right activist Charlie Kirk as an excuse to silence dissent and villainize the left. Fueled by the president, conservatives are using the single incident (for which the suspect’s political leanings remain murky) as evidence that left-wingers propagate the majority of violence in the country. But the data says otherwise, and until recently, that data was available through the Department of Justice (DOJ) itself.

In the aftermath of Kirk’s death, the DOJ has deleted a study from its website that concluded “far-right extremists have committed far more ideologically motivated homicides than far-left or radical Islamist extremists.”

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The study, funded by the National Institute of Justice, says that “Since 1990, far-right extremists… [were involved in] 227 events that took more than 520 lives. In this same period, far-left extremists committed 42 ideologically motivated attacks that took 78 lives.”

The Wayback Machine reportedly proves that the information was available on the DOJ website until at least September 12, two days after Kirk’s death.

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The deletion seems to further what many have posited since Kirk’s assassination, that the Trump administration has ratcheted up its attacks on the truth and is more focused than ever on repressing any voices that do not support him or the MAGA movement.

Trump began blaming the so-called “radical left” for Kirk’s murder before the killer had even been caught, and he has continued to intensify his rhetoric around villainizing Democrats in the ensuing days.

Kirk’s death has prompted Trump to announce plans to designate antifa as a terrorist organization, despite the fact that it isn’t an organization at all. The word is used to describe a loose network of left-wing, anti-fascist extremists that do not have any specific structure or leadership.

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