Feds charge Virginia man with threatening VP Kamala Harris, other top elected officials

WASHINGTON - A Virginia man has been arrested and charged with threatening to kill Vice President Kamala Harris six days after she launched her presidential campaign authorities say.

Frank Lucio Carillo was charged in federal court in Virginia on Friday with “threats against the Vice President of the United States” after posting a series of lurid messages targeting Harris ? and other elected officials including President Joe Biden and FBI Director Christopher Wray ? on the conservative social media site GETTR, according to court records.

“Kamala Harris needs to be put on fire alive I will do it personally if no one else does (I) want her to suffer a slow agonizing death," one of the posts cited in an FBI affidavit filed in support of the charges said. The case was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Virginia.

“Harris is going to regret ever trying to become president because if that ever happened I will personally pluck out her eyes with a pair of pliers but first I will shoot and kill everyone that gets in my way,” Carillo also allegedly posted on GETTR under the user name  “joemadarats1.”

Carillo posted approximately 4,359 posts on GETTR reviewed by the FBI, and also threatened Biden, Wray, Maricopa County, Arizona Recorder Stephen Richer “and many other public officials,” the affidavit states.

Carillo, 66, made his initial court appearance Monday morning in U.S. District Court in Roanoke, Virginia after being arrested last week at his home in Winchester, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia.

The initial court documents did not provide the name of a lawyer for Carillo. Yvonne Nedley, listed in the charging documents as an associate of Carillo's who has "lived together at multiple residences" with him including currently in Winchester, had no comment when contacted by USA TODAY.

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

The messages threatening Harris were posted July 27, court records said. That's less than a week after Biden announced he would not seek reelection, and after it became likely that Harris had the political support to take his place atop the Democratic ticket. The alleged threats from Carillo also came two weeks after a sniper shot and injured Trump during an assassination attempt at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

FBI agents seized a rifle and a handgun from Carillo’s Winchester, Virginia, residence, the court records said. During the search of his home, Carillo said that if his arrest was “about the online stuff. I posted it,” the affidavit said.

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The investigation began when the FBI’s Phoenix office was informed of potential threats against Richer, who has angered political conservatives by defending the integrity of Arizona elections and pushing back on false claims of voter fraud. He lost his re-election bid last week in the Republican primary for Maricopa County recorder to a right-wing challenger who was endorsed by Republicans who refused to concede Trump's loss in the 2020 election in the state.

The alleged threats against Richer led to a review of a GETTR account that authorities say belonged to Carillo, of Winchester, Va., and messages in which he allegedly threatened political violence dating back many months. In one from Feb. 22, “joemadarats1” posted, “I HAVE MY AR-15 LOCKED AND LOADED.”

Carillo also threatened others, including Muslims and, in another July 27 post, undocumented immigrants.

“I believe when he (sic) illegals show up to vote they should be shot in the head quickly they are not allowed to vote so then they must die cuz if I see any of them I'll kill them,” Carillo wrote, according to the affidavit.

FBI and Justice Department officials, including Wray and Attorney General Merrick Garland, say they are concerned by what they describe as a sharp increase in threats of political violence against U.S. public officials with the Nov. 5 election less than 100 days away.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Feds charge Virginia man with threatening to kill VP Kamala Harris