Pennsylvania a focus as FBI bolsters security over threats prompted by search of Trump’s home


FBI offices across the country, including in Philadelphia, are on high alert in response to increasing threats to federal law enforcement officers following last week’s search of former President Donald Trump’s Florida estate.

The defensive posture comes after separate attacks carried out by two men with Pennsylvania ties in days since, including one who was convicted in a 2020 assault at a home owned by the Episcopal bishop of Bethlehem.

On Monday, federal authorities arrested a third man — a Mercer County photographer — for a series of threats he made on the right-wing social media platform Gab to slaughter FBI agents and “water the trees of liberty” with their blood.

» READ MORE: Pennsylvania man arrested for threatening to slaughter FBI agents and ‘water the trees of liberty’ with their blood

The escalation of similar incidents in recent days prompted the FBI and the Department of Homeland security to issue a joint intelligence bulletin Friday expressing concern about the volatile environment. It described what the agencies called as an “unprecedented” number of social media threats including calls for “civil war” and “armed rebellion.”

Among the specific threats cited was one to place a “dirty bomb” outside FBI headquarters in Washington as well as calls for the targeted killings of judicial and law enforcement officials connected with the Mar-a-Lago search.

The joint intelligence bulletin cited last week’s attempted breach of the FBI’s Cincinnati field office by Ricky W. Shiffer, who is believed to have made provocative posts on Truth Social, the social media platform founded by Trump, before showing up to the building armed with an AR-15 style rifle and a nail gun.

Shiffer, 42, grew up on a farm in Perry County, outside Harrisburg, and enlisted in the Navy soon after graduating from high school in 1998.

Public records show he did not return to the state after his Naval service and a stint in the Florida Army National Guard that saw him deployed during the Iraq War. He was living in Ohio in the months before last week’s attack.

Social media accounts bearing his name — including one on the Trump-founded site Truth Social — boasted of…

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