The FBI, Department of Justice and Homeland Security have prioritized the wave of attacks targeting Tesla and conservative influencers, calling them acts of “domestic terrorism,” amid the left’s ongoing campaign to “Take Down” the E car company.
“Our teams are actively working on the Tesla incidents and the swatting incidents, along with our other responsibilities to keep the Homeland safe, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said Wednesday night in a statement on X.
Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday promised “severe consequences” for anyone involved in vandalizing or firebombing Tesla vehicles.
“We will continue investigations that impose severe consequences on those involved in these attacks, including those operating behind the scenes to coordinate and fund these crimes,” the attorney general said, referring to the dark money groups that often fund the organized left.
Bondi made clear on Fox News Wednesday that the Trump administration has made the investigation into the Tesla attacks a top priority.
“We are coming after you, we will find you, and if you are an organized group funding this, we will find you too,” she stressed. “You better look out and you better stop it.”
Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem meanwhile issued a statement Wednesday on the swatting attacks, writing on X that DHS “will not sit idly by as conservative new media and their families are being targeted by false swatting.”
Noem noted that DHS investigators have the ability “to trace phone numbers and track location information,” and promised, “to hunt these cowards down.”
“This is an attack on our law enforcement and innocent families and we will prosecute it as such,” she said.
The National Police Association (NPA), a law enforcement advocacy group, also released a statement Wednesday on the “surge” of swatting attacks.
“The National Police Association denounces this weaponization of law enforcement against its own citizens and urges the media, political leadership, the public and American law enforcement to be aware of and speak out against this disturbing trend,” said NPA spokeswoman Sgt. Betsy Brantner Smith (Ret).
“The false reporting of a violent act in progress is a crime and should be rigorously investigated and prosecuted,” she added. “’Swatting’ is an act of violence against both law enforcement and those being targeted. It is designed to not only physically harm people, but to drive a wedge between police officers and the citizens they are trying to protect.”
Meanwhile, the House Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement has opened an investigation into the swattings.
Committee Chairman Clay Higgins (R-La.) sent a letter to AG Bondi requesting a briefing on the DOJ and FBI investigations.
The number of conservative influencers on X targeted in swatting attacks this month has risen to 15 since American Greatness first reported on the trend last week: Info Wars reporter Chase Geiser, conservative radio talk show host Joe Pags, political commentator Gunther Eagleman, independent journalist Nick Sortor, Trump impersonator Shawn Farash, popular X account “Catturd,” investigative journalist Walter Curt, NC photojournalist Matt Van Swol, Town Hall columnist Dustin Grage, Investigative journalist Larry Taunton, Mike Engleman (@RealHickory), @Beard_Vet, Veterans For Trump national director Chad Caton, Clinton accuser Juanita Broaddrick, and Info Wars host Owen Shroyer.
Shroyer, who was swatted Tuesday night, said Wednesday that in the face of media indifference, it was crucial for conservatives to make a lot of noise online and let the Trump administration know they want something done about the swatting attacks.
“There are ongoing investigations but they need us to keep the pressure on,” he explained.
Shroyer said in a video posted on X that he received a specific request from someone at a “very high level” in the Trump administration to be “as loud as possible” because “the bureaucracy is so overloaded with process that unless there is specific pressure, and public influence to get something done, it just becomes part of the news cycle and people move on to the next thing.”
The Austin-based journalist added that “a criminal operation” was clearly being run against conservative influencers but there was a problem on the “local level” with Soros DAs, as well as within the liberal bureaucracy impeding the rigor of the investigations.
“We have to have a major public influence and pressure campaign,” he said. “They have to know we care about this stuff. [It’s not] just another in and out, drive by story that comes and goes and then they’re on to the next thing. We have to get noisy and we have to apply public pressure.”
Shroyer noted that, like the other swatting victims, he also received a pizza delivery just prior to being swatted. He said he visited the Papa John Pizza parlor that received the fraudulent order and “was able to get a solid lead,” and make a chilling discovery.
“This is where it gets psychotic, eerie, unbelievable,” Shroyer continued, before revealing that the Papa Johns that received the order “is literally at the site of Jamie White’s murder.”
Info Wars writer, Jamie White, was shot and killed outside his apartment complex in South Austin on March 9. Police investigators reportedly believe White was shot dead when he interrupted suspect(s) burglarizing his vehicle.
Shroyer said the Papa Johns that delivered his pizza is “literally at that exact intersection.”
“Now folks, can that possibly be a coincidence?” he asked.