JEFFERSON CITY (AP) – Missouri’s lieutenant governor is accusing Justice Department officials of racism, even as the federal agency is criticizing Ferguson police for alleged racial bias following the Michael Brown shooting.

Republican Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder said Tuesday he stands behind statements he made a day earlier to Newsmax TV. Kinder told the station “there is more racism in the Justice Department than … anywhere I see in the St. Louis area.”

Kinder told The Associated Press on Tuesday he believes the Justice Department had been “fanning the flames of racial divisions” even before the Ferguson officer fatally shot 18-year-old Brown last August.

The Justice Department cleared the officer of civil rights violations but cited widespread racial bias in Ferguson’s policing.

A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment.