Vice President Kamala Harris’ mixed race adds to the security risk at the Democratic National Convention, a former FBI counterintelligence expert said.
Frank Figliuzzi, the former assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI, previously told Congress that the most lethal violent extremism in America is racially and ethnically motivated. He believes that Harris’ mixed Black and Indian heritage makes her a target for white supremacists.
“The fact that Kamala Harris is of mixed race increases the threat to the DNC,” he told Newsweek.
The Democratic National Convention will be held August 19 to 22 in Chicago, where Harris is expected to officially accept the party’s nomination for president.
A Virginia man was arrested on August 2, accused by the FBI of making online threats to kill Harris and other public officials. He is alleged to have threatened to set Harris on fire.
According to court records reviewed by Newsweek, Frank Carillo of Winchester, Virginia, was charged with making the threats against Harris after investigators found that he had made several threatening statements on microblogging and social media platform GETTR.
Carillo had his first court appearance in the Western District of Virginia on Monday, when a judge ruled that the defendant be put in jail pending a detention hearing.
It’s not yet clear what Carillo’s motivation was alleged to have been. Newsweek sought email comment from his lawyer on Friday.
Figliuzzi said that lone actors “represent the most significant and least predictable threat for both domestic and international terrorism” and it is difficult for the FBI to detect them in online chat rooms.
“Despite perceptions of some members of the public that the FBI is listening or seeing all email and online chat, that simply isn’t true, nor would it be legal,” he said. “When the FBI has proper predication, they do attempt to monitor online spaces where groups or individuals are known to be discussing or planning violence.
“In some cases, there may be cases open on identified groups or individuals that allow law enforcement to monitor further violent planning.”
He said it is impossible for the FBI to follow every person who could pose a threat.
“Law enforcement simply can’t be everywhere all the time, and we wouldn’t want to live in a society where everything we do is monitored,” he said. “This means that thwarting the lone actor is a daunting challenge.
“Since the DNC, like the RNC, has been designated a National Security Special Event, the entire tool kit of federal resources and strategies, including some classified techniques, will be brought to bear on securing the event. This means it will be even harder for a lone actor to succeed in disrupting it.”
According to the Secret Service website, the secretary of Homeland Security can designate an event as a National Special Security Event. The Secret Service then “assumes its mandated role as the lead agency for the design and implementation of the operational security plan” between government agencies.
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