Assassination Plots Keep FBI Busy During Presidential Election Cycle

WASHINGTON -- This year’s election cycle is keeping the FBI and Justice Department active with assassination attempts against presidential candidates.

Last week, a Winchester, Va., man was arrested for threatening to kill Vice President Kamala Harris. A second was revealed by the Justice Department as having plotted to kill former President Donald Trump and other political leaders.

The assassinations of Trump and other top U.S. officials were scheduled to begin as soon as this week.

They were planned by a Pakistani man known to have ties to Iran. He was arrested July 12 after a man he tried to recruit as a fellow assassin informed the FBI.

The Justice Department announced the plot against Trump as he recovers from another assassination attempt that played out on national television July 13. The bullet that would have killed him if he had not turned his head as the assassin fired clipped his right ear.

The threats against Harris allegedly came from Frank Lucio Carillo, 66, who made numerous threats against public officials on social media under the user name joemadarats1. He also threatened the lives of President Joe Biden and FBI Director Christopher Wray.

In one February 2024 post, he wrote on GETTR that he had his "AR-15 LOCKED AND LOADED."

In a July 27 post, he wrote, “Kamala Harris needs to be put on fire alive I will do it personally if no one else does it I want her to suffer a slow agonizing death.” It was one of 19 posts by Carillo threatening Harris.

FBI agents who raided Carillo’s home seized a 9 mm handgun, an AR-15 rifle and thousands of rounds of ammunition. He was arraigned in federal court in Roanoke and faces up to five years in prison.

"Open political discourse is a cornerstone of our American experience. We can disagree, argue, and debate, but when those disagreements cross the line into threats of violence, law enforcement must step in," Christopher R. Kavanaugh, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Virginia, said in a statement.

For more information, contact The Legal Forum (www.legal-forum.net) at email: [email protected] or phone: 202-479-7240.