Elections
Secret Service charges Maryland man for threatening to kidnap and kill Biden, Harris: Baltimore Sun
Secret Service agents have charged a Maryland man for threatening in a letter to kidnap and kill Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and rape his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), The Baltimore Sun has reported. Additionally, he supposedly targeted Democratic supporters, the Secret Service said.
The federal criminal complaint states that: “The defendant, James Dale Reed, knowingly and willfully threatened to kill and to kidnap and to inflict bodily harm upon Joseph Biden and Kamala Harris, who are major candidates for the office of the President and Vice President of the United States.”
The 42-year-old Reed, who describes himself as a semi-pro bodybuilder, wrote a violent, graphic letter in which he allegedly said: “We have a list of homes and addresses by your election signs. We are the ones with those scary guns, We are the ones your children have nightmares about. The Boogeymen coming in the night.”
When confronted by the Secret Service, Reed confessed to penning the letter, claiming he wrote it because he was upset with the current political situation.
Home security cameras caught Reed dropping off the letter on the front steps of someone’s house in the town of Frederick and was arrested last week, according to the Secret Service. Reed, who claims he didn’t know whose house it was, apparently delivered it to that particular house because it was the first one he encountered with Biden-Harris yard signs.
Currently, Reed is being held in jail without bail.
Court records indicate that Reed once threatened someone with Secret Service protection back in 2014 and was on the service’s radar.
According to The Sun, on an apparent Facebook page of his, he posted: “I just got my house raided today and my stuff stolen from me because they felt that I was a threat to societee and I have made no threat to societee but they came into my house sees my property and stole everything.”
Additionally, he supposedly referred to the Frederick Police as “bunch of thugs and gang members” on the same Facebook page.
In the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election, politically motivated violence from both extremes has risen dramatically. In fact, one-in-three Americans “believe that violence could be justified to advance their parties’ political goals,” according to an October study by Politico, “a substantial increase over the last three years.”
In anticipation of violence on Election Day and Night, police department across multiple American cities are even taking precautionary measures to bring potential civil unrest under control. The NYPD, for example, will dispatch officers to monitor 1,201 polling sites across the city on November 3.
RELATED: Wall Street Journal: NYPD increases security for Election Day
You can follow Douglas Braff on Twitter @Douglas_P_Braff.
Matt Taibbi, a journalist who has been the top of the headlines for exposing Twitter censorship at the direction of the Department of Justice, had a surprise visit from an IRS agent at his home.
This visit occurred the same day that he was testifying before the Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government about what he had discovered inside of the Twitter files. Now, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, demands to know why the agency made the visit.
SaraACarter.com also contacted the IRS media relations office Tuesday afternoon and was told by an IRS press officer to send an email for comment. As of Tuesday evening the IRS has yet to respond to the immediate inquiry.
Jordan sent a letter Tuesday to the IRS questioning the visit by the agent to Taibbi’s home in New Jersey. In the letter Jordan demanded that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen turn over documents and provide all information requested by the committee.
“As the Committee continues to examine how to best protect Americans’ fundamental freedoms and to assist the Committee in its oversight, we ask that you please provide the following documents and information:
- All documents and communications referring or relating to the IRS’s field visit to the residence of Matthew Taibbi on March 9, 2023;
- All documents and communications between or among the IRS, Treasury Department, and any other Executive Branch entity referring or relating to Matthew Taibbi; and
- All documents and communications sent or received by Revenue Officer [James Nelson] referring or relating to Matthew Taibbi.”
Jordan noted in the letter that his committee is committed to examining “the mounting evidence that the federal government pressured, coerced, and even directed technology companies to take certain actions related to digital content.”
The Republican lawmakers were astonished that “an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agent visited, unannounced and unprompted, the home of one of the hearing witnesses, Matthew Taibbi, an independent journalist who has reported extensively on government abuse. In light of the hostile reaction to Mr. Taibbi’s reporting among left-wing activists, and the IRS’s history as a tool of government abuse, the IRS’s action could be interpreted as an attempt to intimidate a witness before Congress. We expect your full cooperation with our inquiry.”
The letter went on to say that “Mr. Taibbi joined fellow journalist Michael Shellenberger in testifying before the Select Subcommittee during its March 9 hearing. During the hearing, Mr. Taibbi described the serious government abuse on which he had been reporting and on which he testified to the Select Subcommittee. As he explained:
The original promise of the internet was that it might democratize the exchange of information globally. . . . What we found is in the [Twitter] files was a sweeping effort to reverse that promise and use machine learning and other tools to turn the internet into an instrument of censorship and social control. Unfortunately, our own government appears to be playing a lead role.”
Jordan’s inquiry into the IRS is not the first time the Congress has questioned the actions of this private government contracted agency.
In 2013, the IRS admitted that it had been targeting conservative groups that were seeking tax-exempt status. Lois Lerner, who had then headed the IRS, stated that her agency had been scrutinizing groups that had “tea party” or “patriots” in their names. These were almost all conservative non-profit organizations.
Those inquiries by the IRS mainly took place in 2009 and 2010, and as reported in NPR “hundreds of groups affiliated with the party had sought tax-exempt status as 501(c)(4) “social welfare” organizations. IRS demands for documents left many of them in bureaucratic limbo for a year or more.”
Taibbi’s investigation into Twitter’s actions prior to Elon Musk’s takeover revealed major concerns expressed by former President Donald J. Trump and his supporters that the social media giant was censoring supporters.
The investigations by Taibbi proved that shadow-banning was occurring and it was targeting primarily Republican activists, journalists, and politicians using the platform. The evidence proved the the FBI had advised Twitter to not allow stories or posts that revealed the Hunter Biden laptop scandal that had first been reported by the New York Post. Those accurate stories were censored by Twitter and later it was revealed that the laptop did belong to Hunter Biden.
Senate Republicans are also deeply concerned about the actions taken Taibbi. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, tweeted Tuesday that the IRS visit to Taibbi “this absolutely stinks to high heaven” because the “IRS has a troubling history of targeting the political enemies of Democrats.”
This absolutely stinks to high heaven. The IRS has a troubling history of targeting the political enemies of Democrats.
The IRS should NEVER be in the business of harassing the American people. https://t.co/twY3KBcgXx
— Ted Cruz (@tedcruz) March 28, 2023
Two Democrat lawmakers at the hearing were attempting to get Taibbi to reveal his sources, which is unconstitutional. Taibbi refused to answer Representatives Sylvia Garcia, D-Texas, and Stacey Plaskett, D-Virgin Islands questions.
It was during his testimony that Taibbi’s house was being raided by the IRS.
You can follow Alexander Carter on Twitter @AlexCarterDC
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