US Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco revealed that the country is facing a "sobering" and "unique moment" in confronting domestic threats since the beginning of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7.
Monaco's statement came during an interview with the ABC television network, where she provided the first specifics and detailed look at how the external conflict has stoked an already elevated threat situation that many US officials describe as the most challenging since before 9/11.
The FBI had to examine more than 1,800 reports of "threats or other types of tips or leads" related to the war that began with a Hamas attack against the Israeli settlements surrounding Gaza.
She added that the FBI now has more than 100 investigations currently opened in some way related to the conflict, stressing that the biggest concerns are lone wolves and small groups that take action without warning.
"I think we're in a unique moment where what we're most worried about -- those of us in the national security and law enforcement community -- are individuals or small groups who are often radicalized online and who are motivated by and influenced by a range of ideologies, from foreign terrorism and foreign terrorist organizations to domestic grievances," Monaco told ABC News.
"Oftentimes what we're seeing in the most lethal form is from racially or ethnically-motivated ideologies," the deputy attorney general said.
While Monaco noted that in many cases, the threats or tips received by the FBI have been "resolved without incident," the sheer volume has caused "a lot of strain" on US law enforcement as agents and prosecutors chase down potential leads across the country in tandem with state and local partners.
"These are threats, they're hoaxes, they can involve claims of terrorist financing," Monaco said, describing the range of what authorities are reviewing.
"So that is the volume -- the significant uptick in the volume and frequency of the reports we're getting."
Monaco cited the "searing images" of Hamas' attack on Israel as well as accounts of "parents huddled with their children in safe rooms, loved ones being killed in front of each other's children -- literally ripped from their parents and being kidnapped" and the more than 1,200 people killed, including more than 30 Americans, as evoking emotional reactions across the globe that have in turn driven a "very significant uptick in threats" and "actual violence" inside the US.
"We've seen individuals who are taking, I think, twisted inspiration from those images," she said.
Monaco also noted that the Justice Department has seen a surge in threats targeting political and government officials. This week alone, she pointed to cases against individuals accused of threatening a US Supreme Court justice, FBI agents, and three presidential candidates.
