FBI agents, prosecutors fear retribution from Jan. 6 rioters pardoned by Trump NPR
(boy, didn´t see this coming, did you tRump?...) *dripping with sarcasm
Pardoned Jan. 6 rioters and their supporters have been whipping each other up online with increasingly dire threats against FBI agents and prosecutors who worked on investigations of the
violent attack on the U.S. Capitol.
"All their prosecutors deserve a rope!!!" reads one post on X.
"These two slimy swamp creatures will face justice" reads another post.
"YOU ARE NEXT," reads another.
Since President Trump gave Jan. 6 rioters blanket clemency — regardless of whether they were convicted for assaulting police, or if they had prior convictions for crimes including forcible rape, manslaughter and domestic violence — threatening messages have proliferated against law enforcement officials.
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Morale among prosecutors and investigators who worked on Jan. 6 cases was already low. The Trump administration
has dismissed more than two dozen prosecutors who worked on Jan. 6 cases. Trump officials have also launched a
wide-ranging inquiry into FBI employees' roles in Jan. 6 investigations, leading to fear of a political purge of thousands of agents.
Those moves have given law enforcement officials who investigated the Capitol attack little to no faith that the Trump administration would investigate the threats they are currently facing.
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FBI employees who sued the Department of Justice over a questionnaire asking about their involvement in Jan. 6 investigations,
alleged that "their personal information has already been posted by Jan. 6 convicted felons on 'dark websites' (aka the 'dark web')."
"Social media posts are circulating that are calling for violence against FBI personnel," said Natalie Bara, the President of the nonprofit FBI Agents Association, at a
press conference announcing another lawsuit seeking to block the dissemination of agents' identities. "This rhetoric is not just irresponsible—it is dangerous."
Some Jan. 6 defendants have called out FBI agents and prosecutors by name online.
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Enrique Tarrio, the former leader of the far-right Proud Boys, was convicted of seditious conspiracy and sentenced to 22 years in prison for his role in the Jan. 6 attack.
Since receiving a full and unconditional pardon from Trump, he has called for retribution and the arrest and prosecution of an FBI agent, who investigated his case.
"The people who did this, they need to feel the heat, they need to be put behind bars, and they need to be prosecuted," Tarrio said in an interview with the far-right show Infowars shortly after his pardon.
"Success," Tarrio added, "is gonna be retribution."
Tarrio's rhetoric echoes the new leaders of the Department of Justice, as well as Trump himself.
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During the presidential campaign, Trump himself reposted a message on social media that "the cops should be charged and the protesters should be freed."
Current and former Department of Justice officials said the Trump administration's public support for the rioters seems to have inflamed the threats against police, FBI agents and prosecutors.
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"I'm not feeling any support from the department," the Justice Department official who spoke to NPR said. "We do not exist in their minds right now, beyond considerations about firing us."
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