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A man in Virginia is facing charges after he allegedly made threats online that he would kill Vice President Kamala Harris and other public figures, including Joe Biden and FBI Director Christopher Wray.
Frank Lucio Carillo, 66, was arrested for threatening to kill Harris, who is the presumptive Democratic presidential party nominee in the 2024 election, according to a pair of court filings made on August 2.
His first court appearance was scheduled for Monday.
“Kamala Harris needs to be put on fire alive I will do it personally if no one else does it I want her to suffer a slow agonizing death,” Carillo allegedly said in a social media post flagged by the FBI. The post was made on the right-wing social media platform GETTR, according to investigators.
The account referenced Harris at least 19 times. In one post he wrote that Harris would "regret ever trying to become president," the BBC reports.
He has not been charged at this time for the alleged threats he made against Biden and Wray.
Carillo made the alleged threats on July 27, shortly after it became clear that Harris would step in to take over as the Democratic party nominee following Biden's announcement that he was stepping out of the race.
In total, the FBI found 4,359 messages threatening various people or groups, including those threatening Harris.
When FBI agents searched Carillo's home in Winchester, Virginia, they found a rifle and a handgun, which they confiscated.
Investigators said that Carillo told an FBI officer that if their search was "about the online stuff, I posted it," according to an arrest adffidavit.
Carillo allegedly called the FBI response "ridiculous," and said "I guess I'm gonna need a lawyer," according to arrest documents.
Making threats against the president, vice president, or others in the presidential succession line can be punishable with up to five years in prison.
The investigation was initiated after the FBI's field office in Phoenix was alerted to alleged threats Carillo also made against Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, an elections official who became prominent in right-wing circles for pushing back against election fraud claims.
The arrest comes just weeks after a would-be assassin tried to shoot Donald Trump during a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. The attempt on Trump's life resulted in the resignation of then-Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle, and brought political violence once again into the spotlight.
