The heightened level of threats follows a high-profile week for the office in which agents executed a search warrant at Trump’s Palm Beach property as part of an evidence-gathering step in a national security investigation into presidential records, including classified documents, moved to Florida. . The warrant, which was unsealed and released by a federal judge on Friday, revealed that the Justice Department is looking into possible violations of the Espionage Act, obstruction of justice and criminal manipulation of government records as part of its investigation. In the days that followed, violent threats appeared online, with posters reading, “Garland must be killed” — referring to Attorney General Merrick Garland, who “personally approved” the decision to seek a warrant — and “kill all the federal”. In addition, the biography and contact information of the federal judge who signed the search warrant was removed from the website of a Florida court after he too became the target of violent threats. In a separate incident Thursday, a man believed to be armed with an AR-15 rifle and a nail gun attempted to break into the FBI’s Cincinnati field office. He was killed hours later after a standoff with authorities. While the suspect’s motive has not yet been identified, he was known to the FBI to have an unspecified connection to the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol and to have associates in a far-right extremist group, two law enforcement sources told CNN on Friday. FBI Director Chris Wray addressed the safety of the bureau’s employees in a memo distributed this week. “Let me also assure you that your safety and security is my primary concern at this time. The Security Directorate is working across the agency as we continue to remain vigilant and adjust our security posture accordingly,” Wray said in the statement reviewed by CNN. The FBI declined to comment on any specific threats against the bureau’s employees, but told CNN in a statement that the bureau is “always concerned about violence and threats of violence against law enforcement, including the men and women of the FBI.” “We work closely with our law enforcement partners to assess and respond to such threats, which are reprehensible and dangerous,” the statement said. “As always, we would like to remind the public that if they notice anything suspicious to report it to law enforcement immediately.” CNN’s Evan Perez and Shawna Mizelle contributed to this report.
