Armed supporters of former president Donald Trump protested outside the FBI’s office in Phoenix, Arizona, amid the news of the FBI’s search of Mr Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home in Palm Beach, Florida.
Some the protesters on Friday held signs saying “Honor your oath: Arrest all traitors”. Others were dressed in military fatigues with bullet-proof vests with rifles, according to Fox 10, the Fox affiliate in Phoenix.
Arizona has become a hotbed of pro-Trump acolytes. After the search on Mr Trump’s home, far-right Representative Paul Gosar called for “a complete dismantling and elimination of the democrat brown shirts known as the FBI”.
In addition, all of the candidates for the top of Arizona’s ticket this midterm election – including Blake Masters for Senate, Mark Finchem for Secretary of State, Kari Lake for Governor and Abraham Hamadeh for Attorney General – won their primary earlier this month.
The armed protests come as the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security jointly issued a memo warning that the likelihood of domestic extremist attacks has increased. The two agencies attributed the risk to the FBI’s decision to “carry out a court-authorized search warrant in Palm Beach, Florida”.
Last week, a pro-Trump military veteran died in a shootout after allegedly engaging in a shootout at an FBI office in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Mr Trump for his part has called on the FBI to return some of the documents that it seized last Monday. Mr Trumo did so in response to a Fox News report that the FBI informed Mr Trump’s team that some documents were protected under attorney-client privilege.
Some of the former president’s biggest critics have since vocally criticised the FBI. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia called to defund the agency.
The FBI took documents related to the pardon of Mr Trump’s confidant Roger Stone, 11 boxes of classified documents, “miscellaneous secret documents,” a box bound in “leather” and information about French President Emmanuel Macron.
John Bowden and Andrew Buncombe contributed to this report.
