FBI sees rise in online threats following Mar-a-Lago raid

WASHINGTON (TND) — New fencing is up around the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s building in Washington, D.C. due to fears of violence following the search of former President Donald Trump's Florida home.

This weekend, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin warning law enforcement about an unprecedented rise in online threats. This comes after the Justice Department opposed the release of the affidavit supporting the search warrant.

In a filing, the DOJ says unsealing the affidavit would "irreparably harm the government's ongoing criminal investigation."

The affidavit would lay out the argument that investigators made to a judge, explaining the probable cause it had to search Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate.

The former president weighed in on the search Monday, saying the FBI seized three of his passports. Trump also posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, saying "this is an assault on a political opponent at a level never seen before in our country."

House Republicans on the Judiciary Committee echoed those same thoughts in a letter sent to the heads of the DOJ, FBI and White House chief of staff. In the letter, they accuse the Biden administration of weaponizing law enforcement resources against its political opponents but they aren't the only ones who think that.

As questions mount over the reasons for and results of the FBI's search at Mar-a-Lago, the reactions have been swift and strong.

“This is the FBI being used as a political weapon against your opponents,” said Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.

Rep. Paul Gosar tweeted that “we must destroy the FBI."

Former President Trump told Fox News digital there is tremendous anger in the country at a level that has never been seen before. The release of the warrant did answer initial questions and revealed among the boxes of documents seized, there were 11 sets of classified documents including at the highest level.

“I think it was a step in the right direction but I think we still have a lot of unanswered questions,” said Gov. Larry Hogan, R-Md.

Those questions are mired in politics but also in history.

Some say the FBI has overstepped for decades now. Declassified government documents show that from 1963, until his assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was the target of an intensive campaign by the FBI to neutralize him as an effective civil rights leader.

More recent examples include an FBI lawyer admitting to falsifying a claim to allow for government surveillance of former Trump campaign official Carter Page and what some on the right see as a double standard for the handling of Hunter Biden's laptop and Clinton’s emails.

“We have Clinton destroying records. There’s no evidence that President Trump destroyed records,” said Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa.

Very few people know exactly why the Department of Justice sent FBI agents to seize those documents or exactly what they found and there are now mounting threats of violence against agents and the FBI itself.

An FBI bulletin warning of online chatter about bombing the FBI headquarters or starting a civil war days after a suspect was killed in a standoff attempting to breach a Cincinnati FBI field office, with calls for calm including from Republicans.

“If the GOP is going to be the party of supporting law enforcement, law enforcement includes the FBI,” Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said.