Fmr. FBI Adviser Blasts GOP for Threats in Wake of Mar-a-Lago Raid, Says He ‘Can’t Believe’ He Has to Worry About Security 12 Years After He Retired

Former FBI senior intelligence adviser and CNN counterterrorism analyst Phil Mudd told CNN Newsroom anchor Jim Acosta that FBI and CIA employees were facing threats in the aftermath of the execution of a search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, former President Donald Trump’s residence in Palm Beach, Florida.

There were “real consequences” to the recent rhetoric from Trump and other Republicans, said Acosta as he introduced Mudd, noting that his guest had recently received “one of the most malicious threats” he’d ever seen in response to his commentary about the search at Mar-a-Lago.

A joint intelligence bulletin issued by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security warned of “an increase in threats to federal law enforcement and to a lesser extent other law enforcement and government officials following the FBI’s recent execution of a search warrant in Palm Beach, Florida,” including personal information about FBI personnel and their family members being posted online. Breitbart faced criticism for publishing the names of the FBI agents involved in the raid, and the judge who signed the warrant has been forced into hiding after death threats.

Mudd was concerned about these threats, he told Acosta, mentioning the gunman who was killed after attempting to breach the FBI headquarters in Cincinnati last week and the armed protesters outside the Phoenix office.

“This is a numbers game, Jim,” said Mudd, and “if politicians start to encourage people to commit acts of violence against the FBI,” even just calling to “defund the FBI,” then “there is a violent fringe that will say ‘I want to take action.'”

It might only be 1/100 of 1 percent of the “fringe” who would decide they should commit an act of violence, Mudd continued, but the FBI operates open offices that interact with the public, so even that small number would be putting FBI employees under threat.

Mudd also blasted the suggestion about defunding the FBI, made by Florida State Rep. Anthony Sabatini (R), a Trump-supporting congressional candidate, noting that it was the FBI that handled following hostile agents from China, Iran, and Russia, investigating white collar crime, and “one of the most horrific things in America, that is cyber pornography against infants.”

These cases handled by the FBI were “not a state and local problem,” and while people might have criticisms about what happened at Mar-a-Lago, “but if you say defund the FBI, let your kid be abused by an adult.”

“That’s what the FBI does,” said Mudd, so “good luck.”

Defunding the FBI was “not a realistic proposal,” Acosta agreed, and he brought up the leak of the agents’ names involved in the warrant, asking Mudd what happens in that kind of situation.

Mudd explained that the agents will have to talk with their families and their schools and workplaces, and “tell them, my name is leaked and whoever wants to commit an act of violence might come to [our] home,” plus other concerns about providing additional security and how long it might be needed, feeling like it was necessary to “look over your shoulder when you go to the grocery store” and not answer a knock at the door.

“The motive here is intimidation — they want to intimidate people in law enforcement because of the nature of the work that they’re doing,” said Acosta, mentioning the “uptick in violent rhetoric online” since the search at Mar-a-Lago, including specific threats like “kill all feds” and calling for the assassination of Attorney General Merrick Garland.

Mudd said that his experience studying extremists overseas followed some patterns he was now seeing domestically regarding the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol and in reaction to the Mar-a-Lago search.

Extremists “require leadership to tell them that what they’re thinking is okay,” explained Mudd. “They require validation from that leadership to suggest to them that violence is okay.”

This as a “dangerous” situation, said Mudd, predicting we would “see another catastrophic event” as a result.

As Acosta was wrapping up the segment, he thanked Mudd and said that he hoped he was “okay,” and Mudd replied that he had “just one quick comment.”

Mudd told Acosta that he went to lunch with his girlfriend earlier that day and he had to “see who is around.”

“I can’t believe this,” said Mudd, who served with both the CIA and FBI. “I’ve been retired for 12 years. I can’t believe it.”

Mudd isn’t the only former FBI employee facing threats and renewed security concerns. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), a former FBI agent, was asked by Face the Nation’s Margaret Brennan on Sunday morning if Trump was “putting a target on the back of these FBI agents?”

“Every single elected official, every single leader, needs to mind the weight of their words,” said Fitzpatrick, as Brennan interjected, “including the former president of the United States who has not called for calm.”

“Correct,” Fitzpatrick agreed. “I think everybody needs to be calling for calm.” He added that he was “very concerned” about the safety of law enforcement officers, and said that he had been notified by the FBI that his own life had been threatened recently.

“None of it is ok,” said Fitzpatrick. “None of it.”

Watch the video above, via CNN.