WASHINGTON, April 30 (UPI) -- A Justice Department report found no evidence that the FBI wrongly interrogated demonstrators before the 2004 Democratic and GOP Conventions.
The report said federal agents were pursuing credible threats of violence at the conventions when they questioned dozens of protesters, The New York Times reported.
"Our review did not substantiate the allegations that the FBI improperly targeted protesters for interviews in an effort to chill the exercise of their First Amendment rights," Inspector General Gerald Fine wrote.
Several Democratic members of Congress had requested the investigation in 2004 after media reports of the interrogations, the newspaper said
The report said FBI officials had identified 74 people who were probable convention demonstrators with possible knowledge about "planned criminal acts."
Federal agents also interviewed eight other people in their effort to find violent demonstrators involved in what the FBI believed were credible threats of bombings, cyberattacks, harassment of delegates and destruction of property, The Times reported.
