According to government sources and congressional testimony acquired exclusively by NBC News, some who believe that prosecutors and FBI agents working on the Hunter Biden probe haven’t been strong enough on the president’s son have threatened and harassed them.
It is a part of a striking increase in threats against FBI agents which have coincided with attacks on the Justice Department and FBI by congressional Republicans as well as former President Donald Trump. They have accused both organizations of being involved in a plot to thwart justice in the wake of two federal indictments of Trump.
In response to the threats, the FBI established a separate team to look into and counteract them, according to a previously undisclosed congressional testimony transcript.
In June, Jennifer L. Moore, then the FBI’s executive assistant director of human resources, told the House Judiciary Committee, “We have established an entire danger unit to address threats that the FBI workers’ facilities are receiving. “It is unheard of. We’ve never had a number like this before.
When it’s all said and done, there would be about 10 people, she said. “We are still filling positions with staff at this time. But everyday threats to FBI personnel at facilities are their only objective.
Moore said legislators that there had been a more than doubling of threats against FBI personnel and facilities between October and March compared to the same period a year earlier. Officials claim that the rate of threats has not diminished since the FBI investigations against Trump became public last summer, despite the lack of more current data.
The FBI chose not to respond.
FBI Special Agents & their families ought to never be threatened with violence, including for carrying out their duties, according to Natalie Bara, president of the FBI Agents Association, a nonprofit organization that represents active and retired agents. This is not a partisan or political matter. Violence against police enforcement is reprehensible, and all leaders should denounce it.
According to previously undisclosed testimony provided by an FBI official to the House Judiciary Committee last week, federal prosecutor Lesley Wolf, who had been a member of U.S. Attorney David Weiss’ team investigating Hunter Biden, received such a barrage of credible threats that she requested security assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service. According to two IRS investigators working the case, Wolf made choices that seemed to favor Biden. A spokeswoman for the Justice Department declined to comment.
Robert Hur, the special counsel authorized to look into the confidential materials discovered at President Joe Biden’s home and office, as well as special counsel Jack Smith & his colleagues have long been shielded by an armed security detail.
The FBI’s Atlanta office issued a statement on Thursday stating that it is cooperating with the county sheriff’s office and is aware of threats made against government employees in Fulton County, Georgia. In Fulton County, Trump and 18 additional defendants are accused of interfering with an election.
The field office responded, “[E]ach and every potential danger brought to our notice is treated seriously, but we are unable to release any specific information regarding any investigations. Threats that violate state and/or federal law will result in criminal prosecution for the perpetrators.
Following the search of President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in August 2022, according to an intelligence bulletin from the previous year, the FBI was looking into an extraordinary amount of threats against agents and facilities. A man who had been present at the Capitol disturbance on January 6, 2021, was shot and killed after he attempted to break into the FBI’s Cincinnati field office while wearing body armor and carrying a rifle a few days after the search.
Several threats were made against Laura Dehmlow, the head of the FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force, after her name was linked to the Hunter Biden story, according to two congressional officials. Dehmlow has been accused by congressional Republicans of stifling social media and news coverage of Biden’s laptop.
According to a source with knowledge of the situation, some FBI agents have fallen victim to “swatting,” which is when someone calls in a bogus report that prompts armed police to rush to a house.
An FBI agent working on the Hunter Biden probe revealed last week to the House Judiciary Committee that the threats now included the investigators’ families.
According to a transcript of an interview with Thomas Sobocinski, an FBI agent working on the case, “things towards their families, that has absolutely increased.” “The perception of the employees, and particularly the perception of their families, is that they do indeed feel threatened.”
Jim Jordan, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, an Ohio Republican, responded by stating to Sobocinski that Steve Castor, the committee’s lawyer, “faced the same kind of thing” when he defended Trump in the impeachment process.
Jordan remarked, “There’s no place for those kinds of threats and that kind of behavior.