FBI Director Christopher Wray decried what he called “deplorable and dangerous” threats against law enforcement in his first public comments since Monday’s unprecedented raid on former President Donald Trump’s Florida residence.
“I’m always concerned about threats to law enforcement,” Wray told reporters Wednesday following a visit to the FBI’s field office in Omaha, Neb. “Violence against law enforcement is not the answer, no matter who you’re upset with.”
Wray – who was appointed by Trump to lead the bureau in 2017 – declined to answer questions about Monday’s search.
Federal agents spent more than nine hours at the 45th president’s estate, at one point breaking into a safe and scouring former first lady Melania Trump’s wardrobe.
The FBI also searched a locked basement storage room and removed about a dozen boxes of documents and other mementos taken from the White House as Trump left office in 2021. The documents reportedly include letters to Trump from former President Barack Obama and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
Since the raid, Trump has accused the Department of Justice of carrying out a “coordinated attack with Radical Left Democrat state & local [district attorney’s] & [attorneys general].”
On Wednesday, the 45th president went so far as to claim the FBI might have planted evidence in the search, alleging agents did not allow his attorneys to monitor the proceedings.
“The FBI and others from the Federal Government would not let anyone, including my lawyers, be anywhere near the areas that were rummaged and otherwise looked at during the raid on Mar-a-Lago,” Trump said.
“Everyone was asked to leave the premises, they wanted to be left alone, without any witnesses to see what they were doing, taking or, hopefully not, ‘planting.’ Why did they STRONGLY insist on having nobody watching them, everybody out? Obama and Clinton were never ‘raided,’ despite big disputes!”
Since Monday, Trump supporters have taken to social media to threaten violence against federal law enforcement.
On one site, Gab, an account under the name “Stephen” said he was waiting for a “call” that will lead to “millions” taking arms.
“All it takes is one call. And millions will arm up and take back this country. It will be over in less than 2 weeks,” the post read.
“Lets get this started! This unelected, illegitimate regime crossed the line with their GESTAPO raid! It is long past time the lib socialist filth were cleansed from American society!” wrote another Gab user.
Other posts seen by the Associated Press called for the assassination of federal agents and Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Online messages obtained by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue found at least one Trump supporter “calling on fellow veterans and Americans of all walks to join him” in Washington D.C. in order to “protect [sic] the out-of-control FBI and its actions against President Trump,” according to ABC News.
On Thursday, the outlet confirmed law enforcement agencies across the nation are monitoring the online threats.
Monday’s search was based on a warrant that dealt with presidential records and evidence of classified information being improperly stored at the resort.
The Department of Justice has been investigating the matter since the National Archives revealed it received 15 boxes of White House records that contained classified information from Mar-a-Lago earlier this year.
