FBI agents face surge in threats for Trump raid

The search has prompted a surge of violent rhetoric among the former president’s supporters online.

Marjorie Taylor Greene has filed articles of impeachment against Merrick Garland. Picture: AFP

FBI agents have received an unprecedented number of threats after the agency’s search of ­Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home as anger grows among supporters of the former president.

The bureau last week removed classified documents from Mr Trump’s Florida estate as part of a criminal investigation.

He faces potential prosecution for violating the Espionage Act and obstruction of justice after top-secret materials were found at the property, including documents said to have been related to America’s nuclear weapons. He denies wrongdoing.

The search has prompted a surge of violent rhetoric among Mr Trump’s supporters online, including calls to arms and talk of civil war, amplified by conservative media.

After the search warrant for Mar-a-Lago was unsealed on Friday, the names of the two FBI agents who signed the paperwork were circulated online. The names were redacted from the version released by the courts but a full copy was leaked.

Trump supporters, some of them armed, gathered outside an FBI office in Phoenix, Arizona, on Saturday, as the former president continued to rail against the raid as a “witch-hunt” intended to bar him from running for the White House again.

Mr Trump’s Truth Social media platform has been ­deluged with posts urging loyalists to “lock and load” and prepare for a violent uprising in his defence.

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued a joint intelligence bulletin addressing the rise in threats targeting law enforcement, the courts and government staff.

“These threats are occurring primarily online and across multiple platforms, including social media sites, web forums, video sharing platforms and image boards,” the memo said.

“The FBI and DHS would like to ensure that law enforcement, court and government personnel are aware of the range of threats and criminal and violent incidents.”

Officials are still investigating Ricky Shiffer, the 42-year-old man shot dead by police in Ohio after attempting to breach an ­entrance at the FBI ­office in Cincinnati last week.

Shiffer fled the scene before he was killed in a gunfight with officers.

Investigators are examining whether Shiffer was involved in the January 6 riot last year, when Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol to try to stop congress from certifying Joe Biden’s victory at the 2020 presidential election. Five people died as a ­result of the attack.

In the hours before the shooting last week, a Truth Social ­account in Shiffer’s name appeared to warn of the attack on the FBI office and issued a “call to arms”, urging “patriots” to “kill the FBI on sight”.

“They have been conditioning us to accept tyranny,” Shiffer posted. When another user asked if he was proposing terrorism, he replied: “I am proposing war.”

Mr Trump has denounced the “weaponisation of the justice system” against him, writing on Truth Social last week: “My great company, and myself, are being attacked from all sides.”

Meanwhile, others involved in the raid have been threatened, including Attorney-General Merrick Garland, who approved the search, and the federal judge in Florida who authorised it.

Officials have warned that the violent rhetoric on the ­political right following the raid on Mr Trump’s home is identical to that which preceded the ­January 6 attack.

Republican loyalists in congress have fuelled public anger with calls to defund or dismantle the FBI and pledges to investigate Mr Garland if they take back control of congress at the midterm elections in November.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, a right-wing congresswoman from Georgia, filed articles of ­impeachment against Mr Garland on Friday, claiming the ­Attorney-General’s approval for the search at Mar-a-Lago was “blatant attempt to persecute a political opponent”.

The Times