The Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested a man from Virginia last week who they have accused of making threats online that he was going to kill Vice President Kamala Harris and some other public officials.
Newsweek reviewed court records recently, which found that Frank Carillo, who is from Winchester in Virginia, was charged by the FBI with making threats against Harris.
Investigators discovered that he made several threatening statements about her on GETTR, which is a microblogging platform.
He first appeared in court on Monday in the Western District of Virginia. The judge in the case ruled that he remain detained until a detention hearing can be held, which was scheduled for later this week.
Melissa Macaron, a special agent with the FBI, wrote the criminal complaint. In it, she said investigators received initial reports about the posts Carillo was making on July 27.
That first threat was against an election official in Maricopa County. In part, the threat read, “somebody needs to kill this f***,” though the name of the official was redacted in the court documents.
Agents who work at the Phoenix office of the FBI requested that GETTR review more of the suspect’s account. During that review, they found he made more than 4,300 posts that targeted various public officials.
Some of those who Carillo’s posts targeted included Harris, FBI Director Christopher Wray and President Joe Biden.
Harris was mentioned 19 times on Carillo’s GETTR account, according to investigators. One such threat that he made on July 27 read:
“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.”
That same day, he wrote another posted that read:
“Harris is going to regret ever trying to become president because if that ever happened I will personally pluck her eyes out with a pair of pliers but first I will shoot and kill everyone that gets in my way that is a f****** promise.”
That post came only six days after Harris announced that she would be running for president, and only two weeks after the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump.
Since that attempt, which happened during a rally on July 13 in Butler, Pennsylvania, law enforcement officers have charged two men from Florida with making threats against public officials.
One, who the Secret Service arrested on July 15, has been accused of threatening to kill Biden. Another, who was arrested July 19, has been charged with making threats against Trump and Ohio Senator JD Vance, who is Trump’s running mate.
In addition to targeting Harris, Carillo is being accused of posting several times about threats to use firearms to shoot people who are immigrants and Muslims. He even specifically mentioned targeting Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada.
During a search of his residence, law enforcement officials discovered a 9 mm handgun and an RF-15 rifle.
