Virginia Man Charged With Threatening to Kill Harris

In one post, he said he would burn the vice president alive, investigators say
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 5, 2024 4:31 PM CDT
Man Charged Over Threats to Kill Harris
Vice President Kamala Harris arrives to speak during a campaign rally, July 30, 2024, in Atlanta.   (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

A Virginia man who prosecutors say threatened numerous public officials in thousands of posts on social media has been charged with threatening to kill Vice President Kamala Harris. Frank Lucio Carillo, 66, was arrested in connection with multiple threats against Harris, including one in which he threatened to burn her alive, the Hill reports. "I will do it personally if no one else does it I want her to suffer a slow agonizing death," he wrote in the July 27 post, according to court documents.

Carillo is charged with making threats against the vice president of the United States, a felony with a maximum penalty of five years in prison. He was arrested at his home in Winchester on Friday and appeared in federal court in Roanoke on Monday. The FBI seized a pistol, an AR-15 rifle, and thousands of rounds of ammunition. In a news release, the US Attorney's office for the Western District of Virginia said the FBI "discovered approximately 4,359 posts and replies" from Carillo's GETTR account containing threats against officials including Harris, President Biden, and FBI Director Christopher Wray.

According to court documents, the FBI started investigating Carillo after a GETTR user reported that he had threatened Stephen Richer, a Maricopa County, Arizona, official who pushed back against election fraud claims by Donald Trump and other Republicans, the New York Times reports.

  • In a statement, US Attorney Christopher R. Kavanaugh said: "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."
(More Kamala Harris stories.)

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