Last month, authorities responded to a false emergency at the home of the Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley in South Carolina after a man claimed he shot a woman and threatened to harm himself at her home, according to city records obtained by Reuters.
The incident, which had not been reported until now, is part of a wave of violent threatsbomb and other acts of intimidation against government officialsmembers of the judiciary and election administrators since the 2020 elections that have alarmed law enforcement ahead of this year’s presidential race in the United States.
Cases of ‘swatting’, consisting of submitting false complaints to the police to provoke a potentially dangerous response from officers, have skyrocketed in the last two months, targeting both allies and rivals of the former president. donald trump in his campaign to return to the White House.
Who are they aimed at?
Targets include figures who have publicly opposed Trump, such as Maine’s Secretary of State, Shenna Bellows, a Democrat who prevented her from participating in her state’s primaries. Judges and at least one prosecutor prosecuting cases against Trump have also been attacked. But Trump supporters, like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, have also faced espionage attempts. The hoax against Haley, who is competing with Trump for the Republican presidential nomination, occurred on December 30 in the town of Kiawah Island, a gated and affluent community of about 2,000 people. Haley’s campaign declined to comment.
An unknown person called 911 and “claimed to have shot his girlfriend and threatened to hurt himself himself while at Nikki Haley’s residence,” Craig Harris, Kiawah Island’s public safety director, told city officials on Dec. 30, according to an email Reuters obtained in a records request. threats to Haley’s house.”It was determined to be a hoax […] “Nikki Haley is not on the island and her son is with her.”
In the email, Harris said he was in contact with South Carolina State Police, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the head of Haley’s security team. “This incident is being investigated by all involved,” he wrote. The email did not mention a suspect or possible motive. In another email obtained by Reuters, an FBI official in South Carolina told Harris and other law enforcement that federal agents were following up on the hoax call and intended to open it. a “threat assessment” on the matter.
Judges in the spotlight
Similar scare tactics have been targeted in recent weeks at judges and prosecutors involved in cases against Trump. In the early hours of January 11, Nassau County (New York) police received a bomb alert at the judge’s home. Arthur Engoron, of the Manhattan Supreme Court, who is presiding over the civil fraud trial against Trump and his family real estate company. Police officers, including a bomb squad, were sent to the judge’s home in the exclusive suburb of Great Neck, Long Island, at 5:30 in the morningaccording to the Nassau County Police Department.
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However, no explosive device was found and the call was determined to be a false report. A spokesman for the New York court system declined to comment on the incident.
Just days earlier, Washington police responded to a false report of a shooting at the home of the judge of the United States District Court Tanya Chutkan, which is prosecuting the criminal case accusing Trump of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss. Late in the afternoon on January 7, police were sent to the home, where an unidentified woman informed them that she was missing. injured and that no one else was in the house, according to an incident report reviewed by Reuters. The police evacuated the home and did not find any explosive devices. The US Marshals Service, which manages the security of federal judges and prosecutors, has said it is “committed” to “protecting federal judges, jurors and other members of the federal judiciary.”