The FBI has come under intense criticism after a 2017 leak exposed that its counterterrorism division had invented a new, unfounded domestic terrorism category it called "black identity extremism." A number of civil rights groups have filed public records requests to try to better understand who exactly the FBI is investigating under that designation. The latest batch of FBI documents ... reveals that between 2015 and 2018, the FBI dedicated considerable time and resources to opening a series of "assessments" into the activities of individuals and groups it mostly labeled "black separatist extremists." This designation was eventually folded into the category of "black identity extremism." Assessments differ from full-blown investigations - or "predicated investigations," in the bureau's lingo - because they do not need to be predicated on a factual basis. As a new report by the civil liberties group Defending Rights & Dissent notes, when choosing targets for an assessment, agents are allowed to use ethnicity, religion, or speech protected by the First Amendment as a factor, "as long as it is not the only one." As the report notes, "Even though the standards for opening an assessment are extraordinarily low, the FBI is allowed to use extremely intrusive investigative techniques in performing them, including physical surveillance, use of informants, and pretextual interviews." The bureau has in recent years shifted its target from those espousing "separatist" views to the much larger group of those protesting police violence.