By EFE
20 Jul 2024, 07:45 AM EDT
New York – Florida authorities said Friday they have arrested a man for posting death threats on social media against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and his number two, JD Vance, and their families.
The arrest follows an attempted assassination of Trump last Saturday at a rally in Pennsylvania, from which the former president emerged unscathed except for a scratch on his ear but which resulted in one death and two serious injuries among those in attendance.
The Jupiter Police Department, a town about 20 miles from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence, said in a press release that it arrested Michael W. Wiseman without incident after receiving several tips from neighbors and online tip lines.
“After investigating the reports and the suspect’s Facebook account, detectives found that Wiseman had made multiple threats against Trump and Vance (…). Threats of physical harm were also made to members of the Trump and Vance families,” the statement said.
The Secret Service and the Palm Beach County District Attorney’s Office assisted in the investigation, and Wiseman has been indicted on charges of making written threats to kill.
The attack on Trump, carried out by 20-year-old Thomas Crooks, who was shot dead seconds after shooting the former president by a Secret Service sniper, is still being investigated without an unknown motive, but the failure in the security of the event has put the authorities on alert.
The FBI and the US Department of Homeland Security have warned of potential “attacks” on the country’s security forces stemming from the attempted assassination of Trump and have expressed concern about users of online communities who threaten or encourage “acts of violence.”
Following the incident, the US government announced an independent investigation into the failures, reinforced Trump’s security detail and provided Secret Service agents to independent candidate Robert Kennedy Jr.
Keep reading:
Who was Thomas Matthew Crooks, the 20-year-old man who the FBI identified as the author of the attack against Trump and was shot down?
Young man who tried to assassinate Trump used a drone to obtain images of the rally
From shock to euphoria: Republicans’ emotional roller coaster after Trump attack