Murphy had previously told Senate committee staff that his office did not collect, analyze or exploit information on the electronic devices or accounts of protesters. On Friday, Democratic senators sent Murphy a letter asking him to confirm that was true.----------------------------------------------
Recently, Murphy tried to broaden the definition of violent protesters in Portland, in a way that some officials felt was intended to curry favor with the White house.
In an internal memo, Murphy announced that the label violent opportunists, which his office had used to describe people who were attacking law enforcement personnel and property, would be changed to violent antifa anarchists inspired, according to an internal memo.
Murphy argued that the violent protesters werent merely taking advantage of a moment but had overwhelmingly been linked to radical ideologies driving individuals toward violence. That conclusion was undercut by an earlier DHS analysis that found there wasnt enough information about the Portland protesters for the department to know how they might be connected to anti-fascist or anarchist groups and what precisely was motivating them. Many of the protests in Portland have been peaceful and in response to police violence around the country.