NEW YORK (AP) 鈥 A number of President-elect Donald Trump 's most prominent Cabinet picks and appointees have been targeted by bomb threats and 鈥渟watting attacks," Trump's transition team said Wednesday. The FBI said it was investigating.
鈥淟ast night and this morning, several of President Trump鈥檚 Cabinet nominees and Administration appointees were targeted in violent, unAmerican threats to their lives and those who live with them," Trump transition spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said in a statement.
The attacks ranged from bomb threats to swatting, in which attackers initiate an emergency law enforcement response against a target victim under false pretenses, she said. The tactic has become a popular one in recent years.
Leavitt said law enforcement and other authorities acted quickly to ensure the safety of those who were targeted and Trump and his transition team are grateful.
Among those targeted were New York Rep. Elise Stefanik, ; Matt Gaetz, ; Oregon Rep. Lori Chavez-DeRemer, whom , and former New York congressman Lee Zeldin, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency.
Law enforcement officials are also looking into whether Susie Wiles, Trump鈥檚 incoming chief of staff, and Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general whom Trump has chosen as Gaetz鈥檚 replacement, and other incoming administration officials were also victims 鈥 as well as how each was targeted, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity as the investigation continues.
Wiles and Bondi did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The FBI said in a statement that it was 鈥渁ware of numerous bomb threats and swatting incidents targeting incoming administration nominees and appointees" and was investigating with its law enforcement partners.
White House spokesperson Saloni Sharma said President Joe Biden had been briefed and the White House is in touch with federal law enforcement and Trump's transition team.
Biden 鈥渃ontinues to monitor the situation closely," Sharma said, adding the president and his administration 鈥渃ondemn threats of political violence.鈥
Stefanik's office said that, on Wednesday morning, she, her husband, and their 3-year-old son were driving home from Washington for Thanksgiving when they were informed of a bomb threat to their residence in Saratoga County.
Police swept Stefanik鈥檚 home on Wednesday morning in response to the bomb threat but did not locate any explosive devices, New York State Police said.
Zeldin said in a social media post that he and his family had also been threatened.
鈥淎 pipe bomb threat targeting me and my family at our home today was sent in with a pro-Palestinian themed message,鈥 . 鈥淢y family and I were not home at the time and are safe."
In Florida, the Okaloosa County sheriff鈥檚 office that it 鈥渞eceived notification of a bomb threat referencing former Congressman Matt Gaetz鈥檚 supposed mailbox at a home in the Niceville area" Wednesday.
While a family member resides at the address, the office said, Gaetz 鈥渋s NOT a resident.鈥 No threatening devices were found.
Gaetz was Trump鈥檚 initial pick to serve as attorney general, but after allegations that he paid women for sex and slept with underage women. Gaetz has vehemently denied any wrongdoing, and a Justice Department investigation into sex trafficking allegations ended with no charges against him.
The threats follow a political campaign marked by disturbing and unprecedented violence. In July, a gunman opened fire at a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, grazing the then-candidate in the ear with a bullet and killing one of his supporters. The Secret Service later thwarted a at Trump's West Palm Beach, Florida, golf course when an agent spotted the barrel of a gun poking through a perimeter fence while Trump was golfing.
Trump was , with a man saying he had been tasked with planning the assassination of the Republican president-elect.
Also this week, authorities arrested a man they say posted videos on social media threatening to kill Trump, according to court documents. In one video posted on Nov. 13, Manuel Tamayo-Torres threatened to shoot the former president while holding what appeared to be an AR-15 style rifle, authorities said
Among the other videos he posted was one from an arena in Glendale, Arizona on Aug. 23, the same day Trump held a campaign rally there, according to court papers. An attorney for Tamayo-Torres did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Public figures across the political spectrum have been targeted in recent years by hoax bomb threats and false reports of shootings at their homes.
About a year ago to an uptick in such incidents at the homes of public officials, state capitols and courthouses across the country around the holidays. Many were locked down and evacuated in early January after receiving bomb threats. No explosives were found and no one was hurt.
Some of those targeted last year were Georgia Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu and Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost.
The judges overseeing the civil fraud case against Trump in New York and the criminal election interference case against him in Washington were both targeted earlier this year. Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith, who recently abandoned the two criminal cases he brought against Trump, was also the subject of a fake emergency call on Christmas Day last year.
Earlier this year, schools, government buildings and the homes of city officials in Springfield, Ohio, received a string of hoax bomb threats after Trump falsely accused members of Springfield鈥檚 Haitian community of abducting and eating cats and dogs.
And in 2022, a slew of historically Black colleges and universities nationwide were targeted with dozens of bomb threats, with the vast majority arriving during the celebration of Black History Month.
The U.S. Capitol Police said in a statement Wednesday that anytime a member of Congress is the victim of a swatting' incident, 鈥渨e work closely with our local and federal law enforcement partners.鈥 The force declined to provide further details, in part to 鈥渕inimize the risk of copy-cats.鈥
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson called the threats 鈥渄angerous and unhinged.鈥
鈥淭his year, there was not just one but TWO assassination attempts on President Trump," . 鈥淣ow some of his Cabinet nominees and their families are facing bomb threats.鈥 He added: 鈥淚t is not who we are in America.鈥
___ Richer reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Colleen Long and Eric Tucker in Washington, Scott Bauer in Madison, Wisconsin, and Anthony Izaguirre in Albany, New York, contributed to this report.
