Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, FBI director James Comey, lacking any evidence beyond the anecdotal, said that he believed a “viral video effect...could well be at the heart” of a spike in violent crimes in more than 40 cities during the first quarter of 2016.

During an oversight hearing on the Justice Department held by the House judiciary committee on Tuesday, The Guardian reports that U.S. attorney general Loretta Lynch said that there is “no data” to support the so-called “Ferguson effect.”

There is “little evidence” behind the FBI director’s notorious “Ferguson effect” according to the FBI director himself.