Union chief warns of potential threats in wake of Mar-a-Lago search

Scott MacFarlane - Yesterday 

The leader of the nation's largest federal government employees' union is warning of the potential for threats and harassment against civil servants who work for the National Archives and federal law enforcement agencies, in the wake of the search of former President Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida.

Largest federal employee union warns of threats against members

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The American Federation of Government Employees, which represents approximately 700,000 workers including employees from the National Archives, said union members are reporting worries about menacing and potential violent threats, amid reports of violent rhetoric on some social media platforms and chat groups.

"Certainly we have heard from (members)," said AFGE president Everett Kelley in an interview with CBS News.. "I've been very disturbed over the past few weeks to hear about violent threats against federal law enforcement and most recently those at the National Archives."

Kelley continued, "It's a shame that they continue to be at the receiving end of this kind of treatment, simply for doing their job."


The United States National Archives building is shown on October 26, 2017 in Washington, DC. Later today the National Archives will release more than 3,000 classified files on the 1963 assassination of President John F. Kennedy. / Credit: Mark Wilson / Getty Images© Provided by CBS News

"Any number of federal employees could be subject to harassment," Kelley said, citing increasingly toxic and heated rhetoric. AFGE said it is urging all federal agencies to increase security for employees who are subjected to threats and to ensure federal workers are notified if a threat is made or detected by the agencies.

Kelley reminded union members in a statement earlier this month that "attempts to influence the legal process through intimidation, violence, and terror undermine the rule of law, compromise the security of law enforcement and government officials, and make all Americans less safe."

"Attempts to influence the legal process through intimidation, violence, and terror undermine the rule of law, compromise the security of law enforcement and government officials, and make all Americans less safe," Kelley said in a statement to union members earlier this month.

Last week, the head of the National Archives sent a memo to employees encouraging the staff to continue its "fiercely non-political" work, as the normally low-profile agency receives threats from some and praise from others — neither welcome — over its role in the federal investigation into Trump.

A CBS News review of federal court cases and transcripts shows federal judges have also experienced a series of death threats, including judges handling the high-profile criminal cases of U.S. Capitol riot defendants. During a sentencing hearing earlier this summer, U.S. District Court judge Tanya Chutkan mentioned there had been a series of threats received by Washington D.C. judges overseeing cases involving Jan. 6 defendants.

Earlier this month, an Ohio man died in a standoff with police, after attempting to breach an FBI field office in Cincinnati. The standoff occurred less than a week after the FBI executed its search of Mar-a-Lago.