Armed Michigan Man Arrested For Threatening to Kill FBI Director, Congressman — Believed a Child Sex Ring Is Run in Congress
Court documents made public on Tuesday revealed that federal authorities arrested a Michigan man who had threatened to kill the director of the FBI and a U.S. Congressman and whose “Facebook posts had numerous comments stating beliefs that half the Senators, the FBI, CIA, police, Tom Cruise, and Elon Musk are involved in a child slave rape ring,” reported NBC News’s Ryan J. Reilly.
MSNBC’s Chris Jansing broke the news on air Tuesday, saying, “We have breaking news to bring you out of Michigan where a man is accused of threatening to kill FBI Director Chris Wray and a congressman from California, John Garamendi. According to brand new court documents, the suspect also posted conspiracy theories, including that a child sex ring was located inside the U.S. Capitol.”
“I want to bring in Frank Figliuzzi once again Frank. It’s starting to feel like anyone and everyone in public service is a target. What do you make of this?” Jansing then asked Figliuzzi – a former FBI agent.
“I think you’re right. And it seems particularly true for the federal government and particularly for federal law enforcement agencies,” Figliuzzi replied.
“I’ve just read through the filing, the affidavit by the FBI agent out of Michigan in this case and this subject, this person who’s been arrested has a history, according to the affidavit filed with law enforcement, also a history of involuntary commitment to institutions for what appears to be mental health issues,” he continued, adding:
And then in a troubling fashion, you know, we were talking earlier about red flag laws. In the affidavit from the FBI agent, it references that when they checked this guy out after these threats to literally directly kill the FBI director and a U.S. congressman, they found the FBI that there were weapons registered to this individual. Again, that’s an individual who presumably is reported to have repeated involuntary commitments for mental health issues.
So this raises once again, Chris, who has guns? What are we doing about people who shouldn’t have guns, who are still in possession of those guns with mental health and other law enforcement concerns? So, yes, good news. This person’s in custody. He used social media and to threaten literally on the FBI’s Facebook page to kill the director of the FBI and then left voicemail messages and phone calls at the congressman’s office in the District of Columbia.
“Again, direct threat of violence and death. In custody, but there are larger issues here. Mental health, mental health QAnon-type philosophy, right?” Figliuzzi concluded, referencing the far-right conspiracy theory that has been boosted online in recent months by former President Donald Trump.
“Yeah. I was going to ask you about that because we were talking about the negative impact of conspiracy theories. When you look at what was a charge he named in Facebook posts, senators, half the senators, by the way, the FBI, CIA, police, some other famous people claiming they’re involved in a child slave sex ring. I mean, this is straight out of that playbook that there is some secret cabal that’s running a sex ring. And then we have what happens here, which is threats potentially,” Jansing then asked.
“Yeah, we’ve famously heard this before, not only generally from the QAnon conspiracy theories, but specifically with someone acting out in Washington, D.C. at a pizza parlor who thought that there was a basement where child sex trafficking or exploitation was occurring, which of course, there wasn’t even a basement in this place,” Figliuzzi replied, referencing the so-called “Pizzagate” conspiracy theory spread by far-right figures like Jack Posobiec – among others.
“But, you know, I can already hear some people on the far right saying, well, we can’t possibly be responsible for the actions of people with mental health issues. My response to that, Chris, is absolutely you can, because it’s exactly these unstable people, deranged people who are the ones who are going to hear your calls and your incitement and act out violently,” he continued, conducting:
So, yes, you should anticipate that a portion of our public is unstable and will respond and act out violently. And thank goodness this individual was stopped before he killed the FBI director or U.S. Congressman.
Watch above via MSNBC
