Domestic extremists with “election-related grievances” could turn to violence, intel bulletin warns

Washington — A joint intelligence bulletin issued by the Department of Homeland Security and FBI warned of the potential for domestic violent extremists “with election-related grievances” to target political candidates and elected officials in the coming weeks.

The bulletin is dated Oct. 3 and says domestic extremists “pose a threat of violence to a range of targets directly and indirectly associated with elections through at least the presidential inauguration” on Jan. 20, 2025. 

Election workers, judicial personnel involved in election-related court cases, members of the media, political party representatives and perceived political opponents are also potential targets. Publicly accessible venues, including voting locations and campaign events, also make “attractive targets,” the bulletin says, noting the attempted assassination against former President Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13. 

It also refers to the second assassination attempt against the Republican presidential nominee at his private golf course in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Sept. 15, saying that “threat actors may seek to target individuals at their private residences or other non-public locations.”

Domestic extremists “could seek to use a range of violent or disruptive tactics against these targets, including but not limited to physical attacks, threats of violence, swatting and doxing, mailing or otherwise delivering suspicious items, arson, and other means of property destruction,” according to the bulletin. 

There have already been a number of election-related threats during the 2024 campaign, including letters containing white powder sent to election officials, fake bomb threats to state capitol buildings and “swatting” calls, in which a caller makes a false crime report intended to draw law enforcement to people’s homes.

“In many of these incidents, the perpetrators and their motives remain under investigation, but their actions likely are intended to instill fear and disrupt election operations,” the bulletin says.

The bulletin also notes there has been an increase in threats to election workers in recent months which tends “to correlate with jurisdictions where results are contested via recounts, audits, or public election disputes.” 

A senior DHS official told CBS News on Wednesday that there are concerns that election workers will be targeted on Election Day “to try to derail the process that those workers have a hand in overseeing.”

Domestic extremists aren’t the only threat to the democratic process. Federal law enforcement officials have long warned about foreign election interference from Russia, China and Iran.

Nation states have become “increasingly sophisticated” and more effective at using new technologies such as artificial intelligence to “broaden the scope and scale of those efforts,” the DHS official said. 

Matthew Olsen, who leads the Justice Department’s National Security Division, recently told CBS News that Russia, Iran and China “are looking at ways at which they can change the outcome of our election, or to find issues that divide us in ways that support their national interests at the expense of ours.”