Lawmakers call out social media companies over FBI threats

(NewsNation) — A pair of Democratic lawmakers are calling on social media companies to provide information on how they are responding to increased threats against federal law enforcement officials in the wake of the FBI’s search of Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.

Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., wrote a letter to the leaders of Meta, Twitter, TikTok, Truth Social and others, asking for a report on threats against federal law enforcement.

In their letter, Maloney, chair of the House Oversight Committee, and Lynch, chair of the House national security subcommittee, took jabs at Republican lawmakers they say have enflamed the attacks against the FBI.

“We are concerned that reckless statements by the former President and Republican Members of Congress have unleashed a flood of violent threats on social media that have already led to at least one death and pose a danger to law enforcement officers across the United States,” the letter read in part.

Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., asks a question during a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing titled The Capitol Insurrection: Unexplained Delays and Unanswered Questions, regarding the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, in Washington, DC, on May 12, 2021. (Photo by Bill Clark / POOL / AFP) (Photo by BILL CLARK/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Republican lawmakers and media outlets have lashed out at the FBI in force after the search of Trump’s Florida estate, in which classified and top secret documents were recovered, calling the FBI “corrupt” and going as far to call for its defunding.

An armed man tried to break into the FBI’s Cincinnati field office the day after the Mar-a-Lago search, raising concerns that FBI agents and employees would be the target of emboldened political radicals.