A number of President-elect Donald Trump’s most prominent Cabinet picks and appointees have been targeted by bomb threats and “swatting attacks,” according to Trump’s transition team. The FBI stated 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,” said Trump transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt.
The attacks ranged from bomb threats to swatting, in which attackers launch an emergency law enforcement response against a target victim under false pretenses, she stated. The tactic has gained popularity in recent years.
Leavitt stated that law enforcement and other authorities responded quickly to ensure the safety of those who were targeted, for which Trump and his transition team are grateful.
Among those targeted were New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, Trump’s choice to be the next ambassador to the United Nations; Matt Gaetz, Trump’s first choice for attorney general; Oregon Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, who Trump chose to lead the Department of Labor; and former New York congressman Lee Zeldin, who has been appointed to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.
According to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity as the investigation continues, law enforcement officials are also investigating whether Susie Wiles, Trump’s incoming chief of staff, and Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general whom Trump has chosen as Gaetz’s replacement, as well as other incoming administration officials, were also victims—and how each was targeted.
Wiles and Bondi did not immediately return 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 conducting an investigation with its law enforcement partners.
President Joe Biden has received a briefing, according to White House spokesperson Saloni Sharma, and the White House is in contact with federal law enforcement and Trump’s transition team.
Biden “continues to monitor the situation closely,” Sharma stated, adding that the president and his administration “condemn threats of political violence.”
According to Stefanik’s office, they received a bomb threat at their Saratoga County home on Wednesday morning while she, her husband, and their 3-year-old son were driving home from Washington for Thanksgiving.
New York State Police said they swept Stefanik’s home on Wednesday morning in response to the bomb threat but found no explosive devices.
Zeldin revealed in a social media post that he and his family had also received threats.
“A pro-Palestinian-themed message accompanied a pipe bomb threat against me and my family at our home today,” he tweeted. “My family and I were not home at the time and are safe.”
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” on Wednesday.
While a family member lives at the address, the office stated that Gaetz “is NOT a resident.” No threatening devices were discovered.
Gaetz was Trump’s first choice for attorney general, but he withdrew after allegations that he paid for sex and slept with underage women. Gaetz has vehemently denied any wrongdoing, and a Justice Department investigation into sex trafficking allegations yielded no charges against him.
The threats come after a political campaign marked by disturbing and unprecedented violence. In July, a gunman opened fire on a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, grazing the candidate in the ear and killing one of his supporters.
The Secret Service later foiled a subsequent assassination attempt at Trump’s West Palm Beach, Florida, golf course when an agent noticed the barrel of a gun poking through a perimeter fence while Trump was playing golf.
An Iranian murder-for-hire plot also targeted Trump, with one man claiming to be in charge of organizing the Republican president-elect’s assassination.
Also this week, authorities arrested a man who they claim posted videos on social media threatening to kill Trump, according to court documents. Authorities posted a video on Nov. 13 in which Manuel Tamayo-Torres threatened to shoot the former president while holding what appeared to be an AR-15 style rifle.
Among the other videos he shared was one from an arena in Glendale, Arizona, on August 23, the same day Trump held a campaign rally there, according to court documents. Tamayo-Torres’ attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
In recent years, public figures from all political parties have faced hoax bomb threats and false reports of shootings at their homes.
About a year ago, the FBI responded to an increase in such incidents at public officials’ homes, state capitols, and courthouses across the country during the holidays. Early January saw the lockdown and evacuation of many people due to bomb threats. They found no explosives and no one suffered any injuries.
Some of those targeted last year included Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost.
Both the judges presiding over Trump’s civil fraud case in New York and the criminal election interference case against him in Washington faced targeted attacks earlier this year.
Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, who recently dropped the two criminal cases he filed against Trump, was also the subject of a bogus emergency call on Christmas Day last year.
Earlier this year, schools, government buildings, and city officials’ homes in Springfield, Ohio, received a slew of hoax bomb threats after Trump falsely accused members of the Haitian community of kidnapping and eating cats and dogs.
In 2022, dozens of historically Black colleges and universities across the country received bomb threats, the vast majority of which occurred during Black History Month.
The United States Capitol Police said in a statement Wednesday that whenever a member of Congress is the victim of a swatting incident, “we work closely with our local and federal law enforcement partners.” The force declined to provide additional information, citing the need to “minimize the risk of copycats.”
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson described the threats as “dangerous and unhinged.”
“This year, President Trump faced not one, but TWO assassination attempts,” he wrote on the website X. “Now some of his Cabinet nominees and their families are facing bomb threats.” He went on to say, “It is not who we are in America.”
Richer reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Colleen Long and Eric Tucker in Washington, Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, and Anthony Izaguirre in Albany, New York, contributed to this report.
