Domestic violent extremists are considering a range of activities to disrupt the 2024 election and the peaceful transfer of power, with U.S. intelligence agencies seeing greater discussions around a future civil war and plans to destroy ballot drop boxes.
The warning comes from a series of bulletins prepared by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in September and October that were reviewed by The Hill after they were obtained through a records request from Property of the People, a nonprofit government transparency group.
The greatest risk of election-related violence comes from extremists who believe conspiracy theories about widespread election fraud or who have other “election-related grievances” like those focused on a candidate or party, the bulletins state. It refers to DVEs or domestic violent extremists.
“DVEs continue to create, exploit, and promote narratives about the election process or legal decisions involving political figures, and we are concerned that these grievances could motivate some DVEs to engage in violence, as we saw during the 2020 election cycle,” according to an October bulletin crafted alongside the FBI.
In a Sept. 6 memo, DHS described extremists as “engaging in illegal preparatory or violent activity that they link to the narrative of an impending civil war” even as the narrative “remained sporadic.”
“We have observed online users encouraging others to prepare for future violence against public officials and federal agents, who they view as responsible for inciting a forthcoming civil war,” the bulletin states, noting the comments are largely made anonymously.
It said calls for civil war increased after the first assassination attempt against former President Trump at a rally in Butler, Pa., on July 13.
“Online calls for civil war increased following the attempted assassination of an FPOTUS on 13 July and declared this incident the first shot,” it said.
The bulletin also notes that some extremists may seek to launch a war.
“Through at least early 2025, there is a heightened risk that DVEs may mobilize against ideological opponents, government officials, and law enforcement in an attempt to initiate a civil war,” it writes.
A DHS review found five individuals connected with civil war narratives who had “mobilized” over the last eight months, three of which were arrested for preparing to take violent action while the other two were arrested for making violent threats.
In one case, a Pennsylvania man murdered his father, a retired federal employee, decapitating him and using his body in a video he posted about the need to “save America from traitors.”
DHS concluded that the prosecution of those who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 would act as a deterrent to large-scale violence, as well as a belief that any plans for violence are a false flag operation “orchestrated by the government to entrap and arrest attendees.”
In a September 10 memo, the agency warns about plans to destroy ballot boxes,
“Some social media users are discussing and encouraging various methods of sabotaging ballot drop boxes and avoiding detection, likely heightening the potential for targeting of this election infrastructure through the 2024 election cycle,” DHS concluded.
“Some threat actors may perceive ballot drop boxes as “soft targets” because they are more accessible,” the bulletin adds, listing a host of methods being discussed online for damaging the boxes.
Hundreds of ballot boxes were damaged in Washington state early Monday when a ballot box was set on fire in Vancouver.
DHS and other intelligence agencies have been warning for months about a heightened threat environment in the U.S. related to a number of factors, including the election.
Ryan Shapiro, executive director of Property of the People, said the documents “are not typical election threat intelligence.”
“The documents are unmistakably the product of a radically heightened threat environment due to January 6,” he said in a statement.
