Following the FBI’s investigation of former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, federal law enforcement has issued a warning about an uptick in threats against law enforcement personnel.
In the days that followed the FBI’s authorised seizure of 11 sets of classified documents from the former president’s home, including four sets that were classified “top secret,” according to the unsealed search warrant, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) identified the threats, which are “occurring primarily online and across multiple platforms, including social media sites, web forums, video sharing platforms, and image boards.”
The document said that the FBI and DHS wanted to make sure that law enforcement, judicial, and administrative staff were aware of the variety of threats and violent and criminal acts.
State, local, tribal, and territory law enforcement authorities around the country received the internal intelligence document late Friday night.
The FBI and DHS “have noted a rise in violent threats made on social media against government employees and facilities, including a threat to detonate a so-called dirty bomb in front of FBI Headquarters and making broad calls for “civil war” and “armed insurrection,”” the bulletin said.
Threats that “specifically describe prospective targets, methods, or weapons” fall under this category, the advisory said.
The bulletin continued, “Since August 8, 2022, the FBI and DHS have identified numerous articulated threats and calls for the targeted killing of judicial, law enforcement, and government officials connected to the Palm Beach search, including the federal judge who approved the Palm Beach search warrant.
The FBI and DHS have seen personal information on potential victims of violence being spread online as additional targets, such as house addresses and family member names.
The evaluation noted that three days after the search, “Ricky Shiffer, Jr., wearing a technical vest and armed with an AR-style rifle and a nail gun, attempted to forcibly enter the FBI’s Cincinnati Field Office,” and it described the standoff with FBI and law enforcement officers that eventually ended in Shiffer’s death.
Shiffer appears to have posted that he planned to murder federal officials on the social networking site Truth Social a few hours before to the standoff.
After the FBI raided the former president’s Mar-a-Lago home on Monday, the post—since deleted by the website’s moderators—took place.
The suspect wrote, “Kill them when they arrive for you.” Be American, not a steer, I say.
Following the FBI’s investigation of the Mar-a-Lago property, a small portion of the violent extremist information has been posted on far-right message boards and social media sites.
Trending terms on Telegram channels, Gab, Reddit, and TheDonald, a popular forum among Trump supporters, including “civil war” and “lock and load.”
The joint advisory reads, “In light of recent actions, we consider that possible targets of DVE violence going ahead might include law enforcement, judicial authorities, those linked to conspiracies, and perceived ideological opponents who question their worldview.”
There could be “possible future law enforcement or legal actions against individuals associated with the Palm Beach search,” “statements by public officials which incite violence,” “high profile successful DVE attacks that inspire copycats,” or “the emergence of additional conspiracy theories,” according to the warning.
The bulletin further states that there is a chance that domestic violent extremists will use the November 2022 midterm elections as “an additional flashpoint around which to escalate threats against perceived ideological opponents, including federal law enforcement personnel,” based on the threats that have been observed thus far since the search.
The intelligence bulletin was covered for the first time by ABC News. DHS has opted not to respond.
The FBI is “always concerned about violence and threats of violence against law enforcement, particularly the men and women of the FBI,” according to a statement from an FBI spokeswoman.
The statement added, “We work closely with our law enforcement partners to analyse and react to such threats, which are abhorrent and deadly.
“As usual, we would want to advise the public to notify law enforcement right away if they witness anything suspect.”