Story highlights The Justice Department has created a new position that will coordinate the investigation and prosecution of anti-government and hate groups

While many similarities exist between domestic and international terror groups, one difference lies in the way the DOJ is able to prosecute them

Washington (CNN) Domestic terror groups pose a greater threat to America than ISIS or al Qaeda, a Justice Department official said Wednesday.

To help combat them, the department has created a new counsel that will coordinate the investigation and prosecution of anti-government and hate groups.

Assistant Attorney General John Carlin, who oversees national security at the Justice Department, announced the new position -- the Domestic Terrorism Counsel -- following a number of violent attacks or plots against the U.S. that he said were motivated by "anti-government views, racism, bigotry and anarchy, and other despicable beliefs."

More Americans have died at the hands of domestic terror than the international terror groups that federal law enforcement focuses so much attention on, Carlin said, pointing to such high-profile attacks as the racially motivated Charleston church shooting in June or the murder of two Las Vegas police officers by anti-government extremists last year

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"Looking back over the past few years, it is clear that domestic terrorists and homegrown violent extremists remain a real and present danger to the United States," he said. "We recognize that, over the past few years, more people have died in this country in attacks by domestic extremists than in attacks associated with international terrorist groups."

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