Some of US president-elect Donald Trump’s most prominent Cabinet picks and appointees have been targeted by bomb threats and “swatting attacks,” Trump’s transition team said on Wednesday.
The FBI said that it was investigating.
“Last night and this morning, several of President Trump’s Cabinet nominees and administration appointees were targeted in violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them,” Trump transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
Photo: AP
The attacks ranged from bomb threats to swatting, in which attackers initiate an emergency law enforcement response against a target victim under false pretenses, Leavitt said.
Law enforcement and other authorities acted quickly to ensure the safety of those who were targeted and Trump and his transition team are grateful, she said.
Among those targeted were US Representative Elise Stefanik, Trump’s pick to serve as the next ambassador to the UN; former US representative Matt Gaetz, Trump’s initial pick to serve as attorney-general; US Representative Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who Trump chose to lead the US Department of Labor, and former US representative Lee Zeldin, who has been tapped to lead the US Environmental Protection Agency.
Law enforcement officials are also looking into whether political consultant Susie Wiles, Trump’s incoming chief of staff, and former Florida attorney-general Pam Bondi, whom Trump has chosen as Gaetz’s replacement, and other incoming administration officials were also targeted — as well as how each was targeted, a law enforcement official said on condition of anonymity amid an ongoing investigation.
Wiles and Bondi did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The FBI said in a statement that it was “aware of numerous bomb threats and swatting incidents targeting incoming administration nominees and appointees” and was investigating with its law enforcement partners.
White House spokeswoman Saloni Sharma said that US President Joe Biden had been briefed, and the White House is in touch with federal law enforcement and Trump’s transition team.
Biden “continues to monitor the situation closely,” Sharma said, adding Biden and his administration “condemn threats of political violence.”
Stefanik’s office said that on Wednesday morning she, her husband, and their three-year-old son were driving home from Washington for Thanksgiving when they were informed of a bomb threat to their residence in Saratoga County.
Police swept Stefanik’s home in response to the bomb threat, but did not locate any explosive devices, New York State Police said.
Zeldin said in a social media post that he and his family had also been threatened.
“A pipe bomb threat targeting me and my family at our home today was sent in with a pro-Palestinian themed message,” he wrote on X.
“My family and I were not home at the time and are safe,” he added.
In Florida, the Okaloosa County sheriff’s office said on Facebook that it “received notification of a bomb threat referencing former Congressman Matt Gaetz’s supposed mailbox at a home in the Niceville area.”
While a family member resides at the address, Gaetz “is NOT a resident,” the office said.
No threatening devices were found.
The threats follow a political campaign marked by disturbing and unprecedented violence.
In July, a gunman opened fire at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, grazing the then-candidate in the ear with a bullet and killing one of his supporters.
The Secret Service later thwarted a subsequent assassination attempt at Trump’s West Palm Beach, Florida, golf course when an agent spotted the barrel of a gun poking through a perimeter fence while Trump was golfing.
Trump was also the subject of an Iranian murder-for-hire plot, with a man saying he had been tasked with planning the assassination of the Republican president-elect.
Also this week, authorities arrested a man they say posted videos on social media threatening to kill Trump, according to court documents.
In one video posted on Nov. 13, Manuel Tamayo-Torres threatened to shoot the former president while holding a rifle, authorities said.
Among the other videos he posted was one from an arena in Glendale, Arizona on Aug. 23, the same day Trump held a campaign rally there, court papers showed.
An attorney for Tamayo-Torres did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
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