Trump supporters are threatening FBI agents over Mar-a-Lago raid. That's no joke

Elvia Díaz, Arizona Republic
·2 min read
In this still image taken from WKEF/WRGT video, members of the FBI Evidence Response Team work outside the FBI building in Kenwood, Ohio, on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. An armed man decked out in body armor tried to breach a security screening area.
In this still image taken from WKEF/WRGT video, members of the FBI Evidence Response Team work outside the FBI building in Kenwood, Ohio, on Thursday, Aug. 11, 2022. An armed man decked out in body armor tried to breach a security screening area.
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Threats to the FBI are no joke – over the Mar-a-Lago raid or for any other reason.

A Pennsylvania man is behind bars, charged with threatening to “slaughter” FBI agents, just two days after men armed with handguns and “assault-style weapons” protested outside the Phoenix agency.

The Pennsylvania man had reportedly posted on social media that his “only goal is to kill more of them before I drop.”

Earlier, a man carrying an assault-style weapon was killed after breaching the FBI field office in Cincinnati.

Threats to FBI agents spiked after the agency executed a search warrant at former President Donald Trump Mar-a-Lago residence to retrieve documents, some possibly highly classified that he shouldn’t have taken with him.

Threats do not make you a patriot

In Phoenix, a handful of people, some of them heavily armed with high-powered weapons, protested outside the FBI office calling the Mar-a-Lago search “illegal,” calling on the FBI to “honor your oath” and calling to “arrest all traitors,” among other threats.

Others took to social media calling for the assassination of Attorney General Merrick Garland and to “kill all feds,” according to various media reports.

These people may call themselves “patriots” but they are nothing of the sort. They’re unhinged, dangerous folks who blindly believe whatever lies Trump feeds them.

The former president had plenty of chances to return the documents to the National Archives, as required by law.

He didn’t.

Instead, Trump defied the law and when the FBI showed up at his home and took boxes of documents, he attacked the agents who were merely doing their jobs. His followers are now taking those attacks to dangerous territory.

Citizens have the right to protest government actions. It’s how democracy works.

But nobody has the right to intimidate. No one has the right to call for the killing of all feds, and they most definitely don’t have the right to actually try to carry out those threats.

Elvia Díaz is the editorial page forThe Republic and azcentral. Reach her at 602-444-8606 or elvia.diaz@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter, @elviadiaz1. 

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: FBI threats are never OK, not for Trump or anyone else